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The Fool in Christ 





The Fool in Christ: \ 


Emanuel Quint 


By GERHART HAUPTMANN 


TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SELTZER 
PREFACE BY ERNEST BOYD 





COPYRIGHT, 19260, BY THE VIKING PRESS, INC. 


Copyright, 1910, by 
S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin 


Copyright, 1911, by 
B. W. Huebsch 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


PREFACE 


WHeEn a writer turns from the work through which he 
has established his fame, in order to demonstrate his 
mastery in another field of literature, he usually proves 
only his versatility. The novelist who becomes a poet 
invariably remains a great novelist ; the poet who writes 
a novel convinces us that poetry is his métier, and the 
critic who forsakes his last is triumphantly reminded 
of the Latin warning: ne sutor. . . . There attaches 
always a certain interest and an intrinsic merit to these 
exceptional performances, but, on the whole, their suc- 
cess is one of esteem. The under-rated plays of Henry 
James do not establish him as a dramatist, nor does 
the over-rated poetry of Thomas Hardy convince us 
of error when we persist in thinking of him as the first 
of the modern English novelists. Bernard Shaw is a 
playwright, despite the fact that The Irrational Knot, 
Love Among the Artists, An Unsocial Socialist, and 
Cashel Byron’s Profession possess claims upon the in- 
telligent reader of fiction which are not shared by many 
contemporary novels of greater pretensions. 7 
Gerhart Hauptmann is an interesting exception to 
this rule. Der Narr in Christo: Emanuel Quint was 
his first novel, and it not only captured public favor 
both at home and abroad, but it also established his 
position in the front rank of German novelists. When 
the book first appeared, in 1910, Hauptmann’s fame as 
the greatest living dramatist was secure, and he had 


long since been accepted as a writer whose medium was 
v 


vl PREFACE 


primarily the theatre, although his verse was by no 
means negligible. Narrative prose, however, seemed 
to be the remotest of his preoccupations. Ever since 
1889, when he made his début at the Freie Biihne with 
Vor Sonnenaufgang, he had steadily advanced as a 
dramatist, and by the time this first novel was published 
he had produced the vast majority of the plays upon 
which his fame rests. 

His attempts at fiction, on the other hand, were 
meagre, and they belonged to the years of his appren- 
ticeship. In 1892 he had issued in book form two 
novelettes, Bahnwdrter Thiel and Der Apostel, and his 
only other works of fiction were two fragments from 
two novels which were never continued and were not in- 
cluded by him in the canon of his writings, although 
published elsewhere. For all practical purposes, there- 
fore, The Fool In Christ may be regarded as having no 
predecessor save that volume of two short stories writ- 
ten more than twenty years earlier. In that long in- 
terval of incessant dramatic productivity, when it 
must have seemed as if all his creative energy were 
centred upon the theatre, Hauptmann was preparing 
this masterpiece in a genre so different from the strict 
economy of the drama form. Yet those two decades of 
play-writing were the two decades during which the 
Naturalistic school of fiction in Europe, under Zola’s 
egis, invaded the field of the novel, and Hauptmann was 
a Naturalist or nothing in that phase of his career. 

By 1910, however, he had moved on from the crude 
Naturalism of the Freie Biihne dramas, and that tech- 
nique, which was present in the early novelettes, is here 
abandoned. One of those stories, The Apostle, reads 
like a preliminary sketch for The Fool in Christ. It 
is an objective study of a pathological case of religious 


PREFACH vil 


mania, set down with the scrupulousness of a case his- 
tory, in so far as every element is excluded which does 
not bear directly upon the problem. Hauptmann had 
equipped himself for this task by studying at Ziirich 
under Forel, and his subsequent interest in religious 
problems is attested by the plays which preceded The 
Fool in Christ, such as Hannele, The Sunken Bell, and 
Michael Kramer. In his youth he had planned a 
Christ epic which afterwards developed into a diary of 
Judas Iscariot, and in The Apostle he transported his 
subject to the field of psychiatry. It was not until 
twenty years after that he succeeded in shaping his 
theme to its final form. Since then he has not recurred 
to a question which had obtruded itself in various guises 
throughout most of his writings. 

Too often we have learnt by dreadful experience 
what happens to the Anglo-evangelical mind when it 
conceives the idea of re-creating the character of Christ. 
In the theatre we have had The Passing of the Third 
Floor Back and that more recent and more formidable 
confection The Fool. I cannot recall a single novel, 
even of the second or third class, written by an Ameri- 
can or an English novelist on this theme. Wallace’s 
Ben Hur need not detain us, nor the late Miss Marie 
Corelli’s Barabbas, nor the estimable Christian of Mr. 
Hall Caine. The name of Olive Schreiner alone stands 
out above the list of sticky “juveniles” and mediocre 
shockers like When it was Dark. Yet, who would care 
to say that the author of The Story of an African 
Farm did more than imperil her reputation when she 
brought Christ to Mashonaland in Trooper Peter Hal- 
ket? Evidently, the English-speaking world takes its 
religion too seriously to create from it imaginatively. 

The heathen of Continental Europe have this advan- 


vill PREFACE 


tage, at least, over us—that their writers have essayed 
the subject, rather than their manufacturers of trade 
goods for the booksellers and circulating libraries. 
Even the wicked Balzac wrote Jesus Christ in Flanders, 
and in Portugal Ega de Queiroz produced The Sweet 
Miracle, while Hauptmann was forestalled by Peter 
Rosegger’s I.N.R.I., and by Gustav Frenssen’s Holy- 
land,—all of which were duly rendered into English for 
our benefit. Frankly, however, none of these can com- 
pare with The Fool in Christ, which has only one anal- 
ogy, The Idiot, by Dostoevsky, and here, of course, the 
parallel is not very close. Whether the treatment of 
the theme be avowedly antiquarian in setting, as in 
Rosegger, or modern, as in Frenssen, Hauptman has 
more completely and more artistically achieved his life 
of Christ than any other novelist. 

His method is apparently simple. Emanuel Quint’s 
story follows in almost every detail that of Christ, but 
instead of the stage dummy which our popular writers 
try to galvanize into life, Hauptmann sets before us 
the illegitimate son of a priest and a carpenter’s wife, 
establishes an heredity explaining his religious leanings, 
and then allows him to tread the path that leads to 
calvary. Characters corresponding to those in’ the 
Gospel narratives are also described: Hedwig and 
Marie Krause, Joseph, the disciple who betrays Eman- 
uel, and the various disciples: the Schubert family, the 
brothers Scharf, the Hassenpflugs, Schwabe, the tailor, 
and Ruth Heidebrand. All these types, this swarming 
world through which Emanuel passes, has its own real- 
ity: they are not lay figures dragged in to illustrate a 
thesis, nor are they abstractions set up to personify the 
problems which this saviour has to face. Hauptmann 
tells the vivid story of a religious mystic who sets his 


PREFACE 1X 


whole world against him, and the narrative is at once 
realistic and symbolical, symbolical in its correspond- 
ence to the life of Christ. 

Hauptmann’s biographers have identified most of the 
leading figures with men and women well known in the 
author’s life, and there is reason for believing that Tol- 
stoy, who died the year the book was published, sug- 
gested the character of Emanuel. In an address to 
Tolstoy after his death Hauptmann uses words which 
have often been quoted as indicating a definite associ- 
ation in his own mind: ‘Many people thought that 
Tolstoy was a fool. Jesus the Saviour, was also re- 
garded as a fool. He was a man. He was our 
brother. The consuming fire of love, of humanity 
burned in him. The Holy Synod mistook that fire for 
the flames of hell.” And so we get this study of the 
religious mystic, who is a man consumed by the fire of 
love. Emanuel Quint is a simple creature, who is re- 
garded at first as harmless. His predilection is for the 
poor and the unhappy, but he has nothing to offer them 
but his humanity. Socialists use him, but he has no 
bond with them, for he has no intellectual panacea, and 
is unconcerned about the fate of society in the material 
sense. He is torn all his life between his consciousness 
of his own human weakness and the conviction of his 
mission. In the end he is defeated and disappears. 

Think of In His Steps, or What would Jesus do?, 
that treasured morsel of modern evangelical art, and 
then observe the way in which a superior man and a su- 
perior artist can actually set before us the same ques- 
tion, yet leave us with our admiration increased and 
our self-respect intact. Hauptmann takes no sides in 
the conflict which he describes. He calls Emanuel 
Quint a “fool,” but we know what shades of meaning he 


x PREFACE 


saw in that term. He does not, however, browbeat the 
reader into believing that Quint is right. He leaves 
the facts to speak for themselves, and stands aside, the 
sympathetic, sceptical chronicler, too sure an artist to 
permit himself to become a proselytizer, tract in hand. 
Since The Fool in Christ Gerhart Hauptmann has in- 
creasingly found in narrative fiction an instrument of 
expression which he had neglected until he was nearly 
fifty years of age. That novel was followed by At- 
lantis; then came The Heretic of Soana, a short novel, 
which ranks with The Fool in Christ as his best prose 
work. Phantom and The Island of the Great Mother 
conclude the list of this curiously belated novelist’s con- 
tributions to a field in which he achieved and has held 
his supremacy by his first novel. 


The Fool in Christ 


thal 
yh 
fh eel ian 





THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


CHAPTER I 


On a Sunday morning in the month of May, Emanuel 
Quint arose from his bed on the floor of his father’s lit- 
tle hut. He washed himself outside at the stone trough 
in clear water from a mountain spring, holding his hol- 
lowed hands under the crystal jet that flowed from a de- 
cayed, moss-grown wooden spout. During the night 
he had scarcely slept, and now, without waking the fam- 
ily or taking anything to eat, he started off in the di- 
rection of Reichenbach. An old woman coming toward 
him on a path through the fields stopped short when 
she caught sight of him from afar. For the swinging 
stride with which Emanuel walked and his remarkably 
dignified bearing contrasted strangely with his bare feet, 
bare head, and the poverty of his garments. 

The greater part of the morning Emanuel kept to 
the fields aloof from people. At eleven o’clock he 
crossed the small wooden bridge spanning the brook 
and made straight for the market-place of the little vil- 
lage, then very lively because services at the Protestant 
church were just over, and the people were streaming 
out. The poor man mounted a stone block and steadied 
himself by holding to a lamp-post with his left hand. 
This attracted some of the crowd, he drew others by 

a 


2 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


signs. ‘They approached, astonished, amused, or curi- 
ous, or looked on from a distance, and he began to 
speak in a loud voice: 

“Ye men, dear brethren; ye women, dear sisters! 
Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 

These words instantly showed that the man was a fool 
or half-fool, a very strange sort of fool, a sort of fool 
that had not appeared in that extended valley district 
for many long years. The good folk were filled with 
amazement. And when the simple, tattered fellow kept 
on speaking, and his voice resounded louder and louder 
in the market-place, many became horrified at the un- 
heard-of sacrilege. The tramp, as it were, dragged 
what was holiest in the mud of the streets. So off they 
ran and notified the town officials. 

When the sheriff appeared at the market-place with a 
gendarme, he found it in a state of incredible excite- 
ment. The hostlers stood before the inns, the cab-driv- 
ers shouted to one another and pointed with the butt 
end of their whips to a knot of men over whom Quint, 
preaching, towered. With each second the throng about 
Quint increased. Boys signalled to one another with 
shrill whistles, and at times wild bellowing and laughter 
rose above the voice of the strange preacher. But he 
kept on speaking, eagerly, insistently. 

He had just mentioned the prophet Isaiah and had 
thundered against the rich and the rulers who “ turn 
aside the needy from judgment, and take away the 
right from the poor,” he had prophesied that God 
would break the sceptre of the rulers, and then in mov- 
ing words he was winding up by again exhorting the 
whole world to repent, when he was firmly seized by his 
collar and held in the inescapable grasp of the six-footer 
Krautvetter, the gendarme, who, amid the gibes and 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 3 


jeers of the bystanders, hauled him down from his ex- 
alted post. 

Emanuel was now led by Krautvetter diagonally 
across the market-place, followed by the sneers of the 
crowd. 

The sheriff was a nobleman by birth and an unsuc- 
cessful lawyer. A Protestant minister of the neigh- 
bourhood was dining with him, and when he told him at 
table of the scandalous occurrence, the minister ex- 
pressed the wish to see the crazy fellow. The divine 
was the very type of his kind, a man of herculean build 
and Luther face, the Lutherlike character of which was 
detracted from only by his pitch-black, oily hair and 
cunning black eyes. He had no liking for extra-Evan- 
gelical enthusiasts. “ What are sects good for?” 
he would say. ‘* They produce division, disloyalty, dis- 
content.” 

About an hour after Emanuel was placed in the lock- 
up, he was fetched out and led into the presence of the 
pastor. Nobody was in the room beside the gendarme, 
the pastor, and the sheriff. Emanuel stood there, his 
arms hanging at his sides, an immobile expression on his 
colourless face, which was neither challenging nor intim- 
idated. ‘The fine line of his mouth could be seen through 
the thin, reddish, crisply curling beard on his upper 
lip and chin. His mouth drooped at the corners, and 
for a man of his youth, the furrows running from his 
nostrils to each side of his mouth were strongly ac- 
centuated. His eyelids were inflamed. His somewhat 
prominent eyes, though wide open, seemed not to ob- 
serve the things about him. But his inner emotions 
played on the freckled skin of his face from his fair 
forehead to his chin, like invisible winds on a calm lake 
reflecting the yellow heavens at eventide. 


4: THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“What is your name? ” asked the pastor. 

Quint looked at the pastor and told his name in a 
high-pitched, resonant voice. 

“What is your trade, my son?” 

Quint remained silent an instant. .Then he began, 
quietly enunciating sentence after sentence, divided by 
short pauses for reflection. 

“Tam atool. It is my trade to lead men to repent 
— TI am a worker in the vineyard of the Lord! I ama 
minister of the word! I am the voice of one crying in 
the wilderness! <A disciple of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ our Lord and Saviour, who ascended to heaven 
and will return to earth again, as we have been prom- 
ised.” 

“All very well,’’? said the pastor—his name was 
Schimmelmann — “ your faith does you credit, my son. 
But you know the Bible says, ‘ In the sweat of thy face 
thou shalt eat bread? What do you do besides? I 
mean what work do you do for a living? ” 

Emanuel was silent. 

Sergeant Krautvetter cleared his throat, moved his 
sword a bit so that it jingled, and, seeing that Emanuel 
would not speak, said he had learned that in his village 
Emanuel was known as a do-nothing, a burden upon his 
poor hard-working mother. And he had already at- 
tracted attention by carrying on in the same w.y as in 
the morning. Only, in the villages, the people had got 
used to him and no longer were surprised at his foolish 
behaviour. 

Now the pastor arose from his chair in all his length 
and breadth. He looked at Emanuel sharply, and said 
with grave emphasis: 

** Pray and work, we are told, my dear son. God 
divided men into classes. He gave each class its bur- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 5 


den to carry and its privileges. He placed each man 
in a position according to his class and his education. 
It is my vocation to be a minister of God. Now, as 
the ordained minister of God I say to you, you are mis- 
guided. I say to you, you are wandering in wrong 
ways. I say this to you as the ordained minister of 
God. Do you understand me? I say it to you as one 
whose calling has given him a deeper insight into God ’s 
plans and intentions than you possess. Should J take 
your plane in my hands and work with it, my son? 
And should you ascend my pulpit in my place? Tell 
me, what would that mean? ‘That would mean tramp- 
ling upon God’s regulations. ‘There we are, my dear 
Baron ”— he turned toward the sheriff —‘* we cannot 
be too determined and energetic in putting our foot 
down on it when laymen encroach upon the province of 
professional ministers of the gospel. It is unwhole- 
some. It is usurpation. It disquiets the people. 

‘A layman is irresponsible. All due respect to 
Herrnhut. But whether the harm that emanates from 
Herrnhut does not outweigh the good, is an open ques- 
tion. We should not sow seeds in the people’s souls 
which would grow into rank weeds without the watchful 
eye of the gardener. How easily a rank growth saps 
the nobler juices from the soul and blossoms into a 
poisonous flower. Think of the dangerous enthusiasts 
at Luther’s time! Remember Thomas Miinzer! Re- 
member the Anabaptists! And how many stray sheep 
there have been in all countries even recently, stray 
sheep that turned into ravening wolves. Remember the 
inflammable material heaped up everywhere this very 
day, ready for the spark to ignite it and send it up in 
the air in a terrific explosion. We must not play with 
fire. For God’s, for Christ’s sake let us not. There 


6 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


is a little plant, the finest, the most delicate there is. 
We must water and care for that little plant in the peo- 
ple’s soul above everything else. That little plant is 
obedience to authority. Therefore, my son, read the 
Bible. Do that if your work leaves you half an hour 
free in the evening. Read the Bible when you go from 
church on a Sunday, read it, unless you prefer to stroll 
in God’s woods and fields. But do not forget to read 
again and again the passage where it is said, * Let every 
soul be subject unto the higher powers.’ In spiritual 
matters I am your higher power, in temporal matters the 
Baron here is. Therefore, I as your spiritual master 
say to you: Keep modestly within the bounds that God 
set you. It is not in your place to preach. Preach- 
ing requires a clear, cultivated mind. Now, your mind 
is neither clear nor cultivated. It cannot be. No- 
body’s in your class is. At bottom you do not seem to 
be a bad fellow. So I advise you in all good faith, do 
not throw dust in your own eyes. Do not overtax the 
undeveloped powers of your weak understanding. Do 
not burrow in the Bible, a sin of which I suspect you. 
It were better to set the Bible aside for a time than to 
give the devil a chance to lead you to ruin through 
God’s own pure book.” 

After he had pronounced this speech with the sure 
delivery of a pulpit orator, the pastor seemed to wait a 
few moments for an answer. But the admonished man, 
who had listened without any display of feeling, main- 
tained a meditative silence. ‘Then the sheriff said to 
the pastor with an ill-humoured expression on his face: 

** What shall I do with him? ” 

At which the divine heaved a sigh and shook his head 
to express his displeasure again, and then drew the 
baron by his sleeve into another room. He told his 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 7 


friend in a few words what he thought — that it would 
be better not to make too much of the incident. They 
agreed to dismiss Emanuel with a severe reprimand. 
Something in them spoke strongly in favour of the sim- 
ple fellow who had merely meant to do overmuch good. 

They returned to the office, and the baron, taking the 
pastor’s place, adopted a different tone. He adminis- 
tered one of those sharp, curt rebukes for which he 
stood in favour with the higher authorities. He said: 

“Look out, I warn you!” He said, “ Keep your 
nose to your plane if you are a carpenter, and do not 
rob the Lord of his days.” He said, “If you create 
such a disturbance again — it’s nonsense, it’s blasphemy 
— we will lock you up, you may be sure. Now, off with 
you! You understand? Make yourself scarce!” 

When Emanuel Quint stepped out on the street, 
idlers, who had gathered, received him with a hoot. 
That pleased him. His whole being was penetrated 
with a feeling of proud satisfaction that at last he was 
honoured by being permitted to suffer for the gospel of 
Jesus Christ. Quint, like all fools, took his folly to be 
wisdom and his weakness to be strength. His eyes shin- 
ing with tears of the profoundest happiness, he passed 
through the rough mob, and failed to notice that two 
men, who had stood hidden among the others, parted 
from the crowd and followed him. 

They were brothers, named Scharf, linen weavers, 
decent young men. They had listened to the sermon 
in the market-place. But while everybody about them 
was hooting and cutting capers, the whole affair made 
a deep impression upon them. In their village they 
were called the bigots, and, like Quint, they were con- 
sidered not quite right in their minds, because, along 
with their father, they lived a life apart from the 


8 ) THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


other villagers, often singing and praying aloud in 
their dilapidated hut. 

Emanuel Quint went his way without looking to 
right or left. As soon as he had crossed the railroad 
tracks and had reached the highroad outside the 
village, the brothers accosted him. They asked him 
if he was not the man who a few hours before had 
preached repentance in the market-place and had 
spoken of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. 
Emanuel assented. For a time the three walked along 
in silence through the desolate valley country. ‘Then 
the older brother, Martin, evidently in great perturba- 
tion, began to ply the Fool with anxious questions, 
every now and then gazing up at the grey, threaten- 
ing clouds. He wanted to know what one must do 
to be protected against the terrors of the last days and 
be assured of eternal bliss. 

Anton Scharf, who was walking at the Fool’s left 
side, as pale and red-haired as his brother, also looked 
at Quint tensely. The man with his strangely solemn 
demeanour, which drew a laugh from most persons, had 
from the instant he began to preach in the market- 
place exercised decided power over the brothers, akin 
to him in spiritual poverty and stress. And without 
knowing it, he had bound both of them to him with 
chains of love. 

As Quint stepped along between the two strangers, 
intoxicated with the sense of his divine mission and 
triumphant in his first deed, he heard their words and 
questions as in a dream. It seemed to him it must 
perforce be so — that if he just cast the net, fish would 
swim in. Without astonishing him this filled him with 
happiness. So, turned toward the two men whose souls 
were hungry for the word of God, he said: 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 9 


“Watch! ” 

At a certain point in the way, where the mountains 
began to rise on each side and the road ascended be- 
tween, Martin Scharf after some hesitating and stam- 
mering brought forth a request. In the rude speech 
of those parts he urged Emanuel to go with them and 
if possible heal their old father, who had a fever and 
was confined to his bed. Emanuel said that rested with 
God. But at the parting of their ways, though some- 
thing like a refusal had lain in his answer, he went 
along with the brothers, because they besought him 
hard and because a curious confidence was conveyed 
to him from their looks and entreaties. His soul now 
completely obsessed with enthusiasm was drawn almost 
against its will into the intoxication of the miraculous. 

As they walked along the rough road between blocks 
of granite, Emanuel kept praying to himself. He sud- 
denly saw himself after his first trial faced by another, 
greater one. He had followed the call of the Saviour. 
He had given public testimony to the truth of the 
gospels, but now he was to prove that God deemed him 
worthy of the complete imitation of Christ by healing 
the sick and raising the dead. 

It would be wrong to say that the foolish man had 
been governed by a spirit of arrogance. He was full 
of humility. He never failed to add, “ Not my will, 
but Thine, be done,’”? to the ardent prayers he of- 
fered up in silence, beseeching the Saviour to sanctify 
him entirely. And so, unconscious of wrong-doing, 
inwardly trembling with strong expectations, he ap- 
proached the spot which was to reveal to him clearly 
how high he stood in God’s grace and how near he 
already was to his Lord and Master. In his infatua- 
tion he failed to remember the pastor’s words, much less 


10 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the sheriff’s warning. He had learned to read from 
the Bible. Engrossed in it in a wrong-headed way 
for weeks, months, and years, he had been dulled to 
the material ills of life, and he was not easily to be 
frightened by the threat of earthly weapons. 

The old man Scharf was lying doubled up on the 
straw of his wretched couch. When his sons entered 
he groaned, painfully opened his little, running, red- 
rimmed eyes, moved his toothless mouth, and without 
seeming to realize who had come in, aimlessly clutched 
at the air with his withered, stiffened hands, and whim- 
pered and wheezed and groaned again. 

The younger son, Anton, went over to his father 
and spoke to him a long time. There was unwonted 
excitement in his voice. ‘The old man’s pains seemed 
to redouble. He uttered distressing cries as if clamour- 
ing for help. His breast rose and fell convulsively, 
and his throat rattled. Now Emanuel stepped up to 
the bed. But scarcely did the old man perceive him 
when he started up gasping with fear and horror. 
He stared at the Fool as if turned to stone and finally 
burst out with, ‘* Help, Lord Jesus Christ!” He 
seemed to be seeing the devil incarnate. It was in vain 
that the brothers tried to relieve him of his fears. He 
merely drew back trembling. Then alarm turned into 
horror, and horror into frenzy. Finally, as if beat- 
ing away an apparition, he hit at Emanuel desperately. 

But Emanuel merely stood there with his long, fiery- 
red lashes lowered over his eyes, gazing at the ground 
introspectively. Then he slightly raised his long, 
pale, by no means ungraceful hand. The old man 
turned unexpectedly quiet after his outburst and seemed 
to be fixedly watching the movement of Emanuel’s 
hand. Emanuel raised it still higher and laid it softly, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 11 


gently upon the wrinkled, furrowed forehead. Under 
the touch the old man instantly fell asleep. 

Seeing this effect—-no more wonderful than any- 
thing else that happens in the world—— the brothers 
were struck speechless with awe. Though they them- 
selves in a fit of superstition had forced the strange 
youth to come to their father’s bedside, they were com- 
pletely dismayed, simple as they were, now that the 
supposed miracle had actually been wrought. The old 
man, it seemed, was sleeping peacefully. He had not 
slept for weeks, and had spent his days and nights 
moaning and groaning. Now he lay there breathing 
regularly in a profound stupor. 

As the brothers became more and more alive to this 
astonishing turn, which relieved them as well as their 
father from hellish torments, the impulse grew stronger 
in them, overwrought by work and night vigils, to kiss 
the hands of him who had brought them help and who 
now, in truth, seemed to them a messenger of God. 

Quint, even more than the brothers, was moved by 
the supposed miracle. He, too, could scarcely master 
the turmoil within him. And yet, though he felt lke 
crying aloud because his bliss amounted to physical 
anguish, and though he thought he heard the rushing 
of the Divine Spirit in and about him, he stood upright 
and silent at the sick man’s bedside. He merely in- 
clined his head somewhat backward and raised his eyes 
to the ceiling, and a large tear slowly coursed down 


each cheek. 
* % % % * * % * 
The brothers would not let Quint go that evening. 


Since they had taken their woven goods to the merchant 
the day before, there was a bit of roasted rye and 


12 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


bread in the house, a fire could be kindled in the hearth, 
and some hospitality could be shown to Quint. While 
Martin prepared a scanty meal of potatoes, bread, and 
barley broth, the old man continued to sleep quietly. 
Before sitting down the three young men assumed the 
customary posture for praying, and Martin said the 
“Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” Then, as they ate 
and drank together, all of them had a lively sense that 
now the Saviour Himself was present. Thrilled to the 
very depths of their being they sat there in their 
poverty at the shaky table, black as if charred by fire, 
eating bread dipped in salt, every crumb of which they 
had earned with bitter toil— sat enveloped in festive 
radiance, secluded as at the Lord’s table. 

Chained to the loom from childhood up, treading its 
pedals unceasingly as one treads the water to keep from 
drowning, the earth was a real vale of tears to them. 
They would have found it such even if they had not 
been told so constantly in school and church. From 
the depths of their suffering and need they grasped at 
the joyous message of the gospel with the strength of 
a drowning man, and clung to their rescuer. 

The weaver, keeping to himself in his room, accus- 
tomed to associate with none but intimates, generally 
members of his own family, susceptible, therefore, and 
easily wounded on contact with strangers, converted by 
his trade into a dreamer, in whom hunger, care, dis- 
tress become poets, and also, we must not forget, his 
yearning for everything outside, the sunlight, the air, 
the blue of the heavens — the weaver forced back upon 
himself, living, as it were, in another world, reimburses 
himself for his earthly tribulations in the world of 
dreams. If, accustomed as he is to be thrown upon 
his own thoughts and forced to the Bible as to the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 13 


spring of water in the yard, the weaver quenches the 
thirst of his soul with the Bible, and the Bible is his 
one book, it is inevitable that the biblical world, rather 
than the real world, fills his being. 

Emanuel Quint, therefore, seemed to the two young 
men to have arisen from out of the Bible itself. In the 
market-place at Reichenbach, though as Christians 
they had been warned against false prophets, they had 
instantly succumbed to Emanuel’s spell. There is no 
fool in the world but makes fools. The Scharf 
brothers were credulous. Moreover, they had always 
felt that their misery was too overwhelming not to end 
soon. So they awaited the fulfilment of the divine 
promise more impatiently than they waited for bread 
to stay their body’s hunger. In their simplicity they 
had supposed, oh, how often! that the awful end of 
the world was at hand, and everything was on the brink 
of annihilation. In summer and in winter they would 
hurry off to their conventicles miles away, and on leav- 
ing they would cast a final glance back at their poor 
little hut, thinking it might be their last farewell. For 
as soon as they joined the other conventiclers in their 
praying, singing, and Bible-reading, they felt as if 
they were very close to the riddle of the final day. It 
seemed to them as if only a few moments separated 
them from the last moment. And often during silent 
prayer, in the little meeting room, while darkness pre- 
vailed without and the quiet of the grave within, the 
brothers would suddenly turn pale and stare at each 
other, horrified yet enraptured, and hear outside the 
first trumpet blow for judgment day. 

During the meal they spoke little because of the 
strange excitement affecting all three of them. The 
younger Scharf cleared the table with the help of his 


14 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


brother, who then fetched down the Bible from a beam 
under the ceiling, opened it on the table before Emanuel, 
and looked at the new apostle beseechingly. 

The instant Emanuel laid his hand on the precious 
book it seemed to the brothers that his eyes began to 
shine with a supernatural light, and a heavenly fire 
spread from the divine talisman through his body. 
Yet it appeared that he, the visionary, had won all the 
greater composure from the Bible. Despite all his 
extravagances, at that moment he stood firmly on his 
feet, once again touching the original source of divine 
wisdom. He stood on the ground on which, as he 
supposed, his illusions, which he took for the truth, 
were based. 

He began to read, or, rather, to speak in a low, 
fervent, mysterious voice, merely glancing at the text 
from time to time: 

‘¢<“ Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of 
God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall 
be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall 
laugh.’ ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me,’” he 
continued. ‘ He sent me as he sent many before me. 
Behold I am here. I proclaim the Gospel. I am sent 
‘to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised.’” And further he said, 
“Look at me,” and all the woe of a heavy, hidden 
sorrow seemed to appear on his careworn, suddenly 
emaciated features. ‘‘ Mayhap you will say unto me, 
‘Physician, heal thyself.’ If you know me as your 
father knew me—his outcry proved he knew me— 
then you know that I am an outcast from among men. 
From childhood I was treated with scorn. As a boy I 
was covered with boils. I lay on the sickbed longer 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 15 


than may seem possible to you, seeing that I am alive. 
But shame did not debase me, and sickness left my soul 
alive. For is it not written in the Scriptures, ‘ Blessed 
are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall sep- 
arate you from their company, and shall reproach you, 
and cast out your name as evil.? They call me a 
fool. Let them. So also they turned from the 
Saviour, and said all manner of evil against him. Be- 
hold, it is God’s Lamb who bears the sins of the world. 
He had no form nor comeliness, and yet they esteemed 
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Now, if 
you say unto me, ‘ Physician, heal thyself,’ then I 
say unto you, I will not lay aside the garment of 
earthly shame and disease until I stand in the presence 
of the Lord. Here in this world suffering is happi- 
ness. I bless our Father for every pang he has in- 
flicted upon me. The blood and the suffering of 
Christ, they are my adornment and my festal robes. 
I will not take off the garb of earthly affliction until 
it has been removed from the least of my poor brethren. 
For do you know who is the least, the poorest, the 
wretchedest of all men? ‘The sickest, who begs to be 
healed? The thirstiest of those who languish? 'The 
one whom hunger most torments? Who suffers most 
bitterly from want? Do you know who he is? He! 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” 

Thus Emanuel was speaking when a wild howl came 
from without. The brothers paled and looked at each 
other. Some uproarious peasant boys passing by the 
hut had noticed the lights, and coming up had seen 
the religious enthusiasts at prayer. They stood grim- 
acing outside, their mouths and noses pressed flat 
against the pane of one of the small windows. The 
blood suddenly mounted to Anton’s head. A moment 


16 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


before completely in the spell of his devotion, he was 
now seized with a violent fit of anger, and was ready 
- to chastise the disturbers of peace. 

Quint regarded the man painfully struggling to con- 
trol himself with mild aes perhaps not un- 
mixed with complacency. 

“ ¢ Blessed are the meek,’ ” he said, holding out his 
hand to him. When he felt Anton’s hand in his, he 
pressed it firmly, and said, “ Well for you that God 
has granted you manliness and courage. Make use of 
them. Serve the Gospel. The servants of the word 
should be men. But employ your strength for hu- 
mility, your courage for patience, and let your zeal 
be changed into the love of God. ‘Then you will be a 
rock like unto Peter.” 


CHAPTER II 


Tue inner fire that had led Emanuel to give the first 
testimony of his inspiration, the fire which he took 
to be the fire of the Holy Ghost, continued to burn 
even after he left Anton and Martin Scharf. He did 
not doubt that the Saviour was within him, that He 
worked miracles through him, and in this way confirmed 
his calling as an apostle. 

When he left the brothers, he went into the woods, 
as one who must hide his bliss. As the dawn came up 
and the sky grew lighter and the birds began to sing 
louder, he was drawn deeper into the woods and higher 
up the mountains. That spring morning on earth, 
awaited with expectancy, quivering with promises of 
sensual enjoyments, and already inspiring all creatures, 
had a divine significance to Emanuel. The enthusiast’s 
heart was overflowing with love, and the impulse that 
drove him on and upward was not the desire to see, 
as soon as possible, the creator of those earthly de- 
lights, the sun. Emanuel felt that God Himself was 
rising in its light. He wanted to stand in His glory 
even if it should wither him. 

Emanuel breathed in the morning air. But it 
seemed to him to be the morning of that eternal day 
from which darkness is forever banished, the day on 
which, according to the Biblical promise, we shall walk 
in the face and the peace of God, delivered. from evil, 
partakers of eternal bliss.- His bliss mounted to intoxi- 
cation. The waves of his ecstasy rose so high that, al- 


17 


18 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


most against his will, to save himself from perishing 
from the inconceivable abundance of his bliss, he began 
to shout for joy, to sing, and praise God jubilantly. 

Thus he reached the summit of the Hohe Eule, 
the highest peak of the region. Had anyone observed 
the poor labourer, as he raised his hands to the heavens, 
and ran about murmuring to himself or shouting 
aloud, and stared fixedly at. the east with hot, tearful 
eyes, awaiting the sun in morbid expectancy, anyone 
so observing him would have taken him for a madman. 

And now as the sun broke upon earth in a vaster 
glory, warm with a golden glow, shedding a dark 
purple light and filling space as with a mighty divine 
uproar —as the poor apostle’s ears rang with the 
blare of trumpets and drums and cymbals and harps 
— Emanuel could hold himself erect for only an in- 
stant. For only an instant could he look into the 
ardent blaze. Then fairly consumed by a burning pain 
deep in his heart he sank on his knees — a pain as sweet 
as it was fiery — and brokenly besought mercy upon all 
men. 


* % * * * * * * 


When Quint awoke from a heavy, deathlike sleep, 
it was already midday. He did not know what he 
had dreamt, or if he had dreamt at all, but he was 
refreshed, and was filled with profound beatitude. He 
washed his hands and face and slaked his thirst at a 
brook nearby. Then apparently without a definite 
goal he descended into the valley, and after some 
time reached the first hut at the very edge of the woods. 
He knocked at the door and begged for alms. Some 
bread was given him. 

Avoiding the habitations of men the Fool wandered 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 19 


along secluded, solitary footpaths down to the plain, 
and along the plain, now on the balks between the 
fields, now in the furrow of a blooming potato patch, 
or at the edge of small streams, the courses of which 
were marked by lines of willows and alders. It was 
already dark when he reached a little peasant village 
situated in a dip in the land. He could see its gables, 
its chimneys, and the point of a weather-beaten pagan 
tower and the dark cloud of its oaks, elms, and lindens. 
Here the Fool was unknown. In the dark he could, 
without being’ conspicuous, join some old men and 
women on their way to the school building. When he 
reached it, he found a small congregation already as- 
sembled in one of the schoolrooms awaiting the 
preacher. 

Quint had scarcely seated himself in an empty place 
on the hindmost bench, when the door opened again, 
and a feminine-looking young man, the village teacher, 
entered leading another man. This man, broad, low- 
browed, and short-necked, by no means resembled a mes- 
senger of peace. 

He mounted the little platform, and, as if to conceal 
the sombre glow of his eyes, he began to turn the leaves 
of the Bible lying open on the desk between two 
lighted candles. Then he surveyed the congregation, 
chiefly old women and workingmen, with a menacing, 
penetrating look. 

-It was a look which caused poor Emanuel Quint to 
tremble. All of a sudden he seemed to himself to be 
laden with guilt, to be a sinner worthy of death. 
Even at the preacher’s first words rolling in the smoky 
room like the premonitory mutterings of a mighty 
storm, a desperate striving and wrestling began in the 
Fool’s soul. But a little more and he would have 


20 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


jumped up and run away as if pursued by hellish 
fiends. For what he had done during the last weeks, 
his presumption fell upon his heart with crushing 
weight. As if illuminated by a sudden, penetrating 
flash, he realized his own secret thoughts and their 
still more secret vanity. He heard the awful words: 

“¢* And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the 
trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth 
good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.’ ” 

The poor, pale, red-haired man stared with wide- 
opened eyes, and let his jaw, fringed with the little 
straw-coloured beard, droop. He mentally beat his 
breast. And he bowed ten times, so low that his sweat- 
covered brow touched the floor. Full of profound 
contrition he was ready to abandon himself to God’s 
most dreadful chastisement. 


* * * * % * * 


Brother Nathaniel preached not as the scribes; rather 
like St. John the Baptist, who had spoken as with 
thunder, lightning, and fiery lashes. 

So a mighty voice went forth from him carrying 
punishment and setting each listener a-tremble. But 
he did not merely continue the mission of the first 
John, the Baptist. He had also absorbed the horri- 
ble, dismaying images of the other John, those hideous, 
ghastly phantasies contained in the Book of Revelation. 

He denounced the blindness, the wickedness of the 
world, the merchants who are princes, the kings and 
mighty men who care for nothing but to invent new 
instruments of war and murder. 

““¢T am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,’ ” 
he declaimed. But I say unto you, I and many a 
Christian beside me have heard another voice crying 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 21 


out at night under the stars, ‘ Babylon is fallen, is 
fallen, that great city.’ 

“Woe, woe, woe,” he cried, his lids under his bushy 
brows drooping over his eyes as if he would not look 
upon the faces that had extorted from him such cries 
of dread, admonition, and anguish. ‘I see the angels 
of the Euphrates let loose! I see them with the 
swords of vengeance rushing upon all parts of the 
earth. They descend and smite America and drown 
a third part of all her people in blood. They descend 
and smite great Asia, and slay a third part of all 
living creatures. They descend and smite Europe, 
Australia, Africa, and stifle and kill and trample down 
with glowing feet the enemies of Him which is, and 
which was, and which is to come. The sun is overcast, 
the stars fall from heaven upon the earth blazing in 
an awful conflagration. The sea is blood. The fish 
and all the creatures of the waters choke with blood. 
And now the waters rise and spit, spit, spit forth their 
dead. ‘They spit forth all the victims they swallowed 
from the beginning of time unto judgment day.” 

Thus the preacher held forth a long time, painting 
the end of the great Babylon. Fire and brimstone 
leapt through the schoolroom. The poor, shrinking 
people listened with trembling jaws. Their thin, bony, 
wrinkled faces turned from side to side to follow the 
speaker, and their eyes hung greedily upon his mouth. 
As if drinking in delight, or as if moved by icy horror, 
they held their mouths agape, and sighed and groaned. 

He told them of crowns, and crowns again, with 
which the “ great red dragon having seven heads and 
ten horns ” was adorned. They smelt the smoke and 
the roasting odour of the greedy fire bursting from its 
unfathomable jaws. Under the beast the earth quaked 


22 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


with renewed massacre and the blare of trumpets. 
There was no end of destruction, nowhere salvation, no 
escape for the sinner. 

And mountains of corpses arose from pestilence, 
fire, sword, and scourge. Ravens, eagles, and wolves 
died glutted with carrion. One could smell the thick, 
poisonous exhalations of decaying bodies. But in the 
midst of all this horror rising like a flood high above 
man’s conception, Emanuel Quint suddenly heard some- 
thing softly sound in his soul like a clear little silver bell, 
then something ring like a note on a wondrous mysteri- 
ous reed. His whole being responded with a rapturous 
shudder. 

The wild, bushy head with the swollen veins on the 
brow, tossing back and forth between the lights, no 
longer had any power over Emanuel. But the 
preacher, too, seemed at last to bethink himself that 
the field of souls was now sufficiently prepared to re- 
ceive the seed of the kingdom to come. The fire and 
brimstone of purgation had, he assumed, made his lis- 
teners’ tongues sufficiently thirsty for a drop of living 
water, for that quickening element whose deep well- 
spring was open to him. And so he passed on to the 
certain peace of the elect of God, for whom the New 
Jerusalem, the place of eternal joy, was ready. 

He spoke of the grain of mustard seed, which would 
grow into a tree shadowing the whole world — Emanuel 
began to listen again! He spoke of the rosy blood of 
the Lamb, by which the faithful would be washed 
clean of all sin, snowy white, immaculate. On the place 
of the old Babylon he built up the new, the blessed 
Jerusalem. He cried ecstatically: 

*** Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 


THE FOOL IN CHRisST 23 


resurrection. He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things.’ ” 

’ And like a celestial builder he built up the Holy 
City piece by piece, out of jasper. He showed his 
listeners the gates and foundations. He measured the 
length and breadth of Jerusalem with a golden reed. 
He made the houses of pure gold, the floors of jasper, 
sapphire, and emerald. He mentioned sardonyx, 
sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, jacinth, and lavished 
words, which, though incomprehensible to the congre- 
gation, gave them an intoxicating taste of splendour 
and rapture. He closed with a prayer for repentance 
and for a faith as firm as the rocks, that the congre- 
gation might belong to those who were called to dwell 
for thousands of years in unutterable bliss under the 
sceptre of the Lamb, which was the one light of the 
earthly Zion. 


* * * * * * * % 


Outside in the hall, after the people had scattered, 
Emanuel Quint stepped up to the preacher, and said to 
him softly: 

“What must I do to be saved? ” 

The preacher took Emanuel’s hand, and drew him up 
a flight of creaky wooden stairs into a little guest- 
room, which the school allowed him. It seemed that 
the honest man of God was more favourably impressed 
by Emanuel’s appearance than the official representa- 
tive of Christianity had been recently. Downstairs, 
the teacher and his wife waited long at the neatly 
spread table, while the voices of the two men sounded 
livelier and livelier from above. 


When Brother Nathaniel finally appeared for sup- 


24 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


per, his whole manner indicated that something unex- 
pected had come into his life. He spoke in a dis- 
traught way, and ate without giving attention to what 
was set before him. At the end of the meal he sank 
into a corner of the sofa, over which a crocheted 
cover was spread, and picked his teeth, lost in thought 
— the preacher’s manners were not good. 

The teacher never wearied of speaking of the king- 
dom of God and its delights. The somewhat effemi- 
nate man with the soft bearded face of the disciple 
John was insatiable in this. His voluptuous young 
wife, who had an Oriental, sensual, flaccid air, drew a 
wry face when he repeatedly made impatient signs to 
her with the Bible in his hand to be quicker at clearing 
the table and hungrier for God’s word. 

“Just now in my room,” said Brother Nathaniel 
suddenly, “ I was talking to a man whose manner and 
language are still before my soul. I knew him not, 
but he knew me. He had heard me spoken of fre- 
quently — by whom I do not know. He had read of 
me in many a religious tract — in which I do not know. 
He is well versed in the Bible. Yet at the first glance 
I scarcely believed he could read. He kept his name 
from me. I do not know why. Perhaps he has been 
punished for some offence. Perhaps he has been locked 
up in a jail somewhere. Well, there will be more 
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over 
ninety and nine just persons. But I must repeat, 
there is a peculiar breath of simplicity and innocence 
about him. There is a simple, convincing faith in 
him. The sight of him, I scarcely know why, re- 
called the text: ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs, and 
carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted.’ In fact, he seems sick. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 95 


The red spots on his cheeks would indicate consump- 
tion. But at his age his suffering could scarcely have 
been so great as to give him so keen an insight into 
sorrow and misery. It is remarkable with what a care- 
ful, knowing hand he touches everything! I do not un- 
derstand it. I cannot comprehend it. 

“His body is wasted. In many places it shows 
through the rents in his wretched clothes. But there 
is a love and a mercifulness about the whole man that 
in a sense disarms and moves me. He beams with 
such a gracious spirit of mercy that I with my love 
seem to myself a dead, a hard-hearted man. He took 
issue with a passage in Revelation which I used in my 
sermon, where great Babylon is visited with fire and 
sword by the holy angels and the Lamb. He said 
that was not the spirit of the Lamb. He spoke as one 
who knows, and I who esteem myself armed with the 
word of God was at a loss what to say in reply. He 
declared it a fearful misunderstanding, arising from 
the blindness of hate, which the eternal love of the 
Saviour did not succeed in entirely eradicating even 
from the disciples.” 

The teacher was startled. It was unheard-of to 
doubt the divine truth of the inviolable words of the 
Scriptures, even the very least letter of them. And 
he did not withhold expression of his horror. 

“The Saviour, the Saviour, and again the Saviour,” 
the preacher answered. ‘There is nothing to say in 
refutation, dear brother in the Lord, when you have a 
clear impression that the man with whom you are speak- 
ing is resting entirely in the bosom of the Lamb. 
Jesus, Jesus, and again Jesus. This young believer 
knows of nothing else. And Jesus Himself said: ‘ The 
letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.’ It is in the pres- 


26 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ence of this Jesus that we walk. Who knows in what 
way he will come? Whether to-day, or to-morrow, 
or twelve thousand years hence? Who shall say? I 
laid my hands in blessing upon his head, the pure- 
hearted, the good-hearted man, and thought of the 
words of the Saviour when he said, ‘Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me.’ ” 

The apostle of the millennium continued in pro- 
founder meditation: 

“What do these words show? Must they not ani- 
mate every believer to unceasing caution? How do 
I know if I am harsh with someone that he is not Jesus 
Himself? How do I know if the Saviour Himself 
mayhap was not within that man? Is it not wholly 
in His power again to walk the path of earthly hu- 
mility and earthly misery? Is it not in His power 
daily and hourly? Dear brother in Christ, I know 
whereof I speak — that young man may have been the 
Saviour in His own person! Aye, in a certain sense, 
he was the Saviour.” 

Thus they discussed poor Emanuel Quint until long 
after midnight. 

The next morning before sunrise, when the first pale, 
cold light of dawn spread over the broad planted val- 
ley, Brother Nathaniel Schwarz started off on a walk 
he had to take across the fields. On the road through 
the village he met a young man of about eighteen 
years of age, the so-called secretary of a certain estate, 
the owners of which were devout Christians. The 
young man was their nephew and adopted child, and 
at the same time their secretary-pupil or secretary-ap- 
prentice in agriculture. The wandering preacher had 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST Q7 


often been given shelter in their home and had partaken 
of the generous hospitality of their table. 

The handsome delicate young man came strolling to- 
ward him in the magic light of the dawn past the gates 
of the peasants’ grounds and the railing about the cot- 
tage gardens. As soon as the preacher saw him, he 
remembered how concerned his hosts had been for the 
salvation of the youth’s soul and how they had besought 
him for advice and help. So he went straight up to 
him, and gave him a friendly greeting, within himself 
blessing this apparently chance meeting as a boon from 
heaven. 

It turned out that their ways were the same, and they 
walked along together at an easy gait which soon 
brought them outside the village to a broad grassy 
walk between rows of blossoming cherry trees. The 
transparent arches stretched ahead of them to a dis- 
tance, and from all sides came the thousand-voiced, 
restless, joyous clamour of larks. 

‘“ How is it, Kurt,” the brother asked the young 
man, “that you are up and abroad so early?” 

Kurt Simon made some slight answer, blushing shyly. 

“You heard me preach last night?” 

(<4 Yes.” 

As a matter of fact, the awful pictures of judgment 
day and the end of the world had disquieted the secre- 
tary to the very depths of his soul, and had robbed 
him of sleep. 

The brother tried in various ways to insinuate himself 
into the confidence of the youth’s reserved soul. 
But all his pains resulted merely in increasing his re- 
serve. | 

“ Your aunt gave you a New Testament a few days 
ago?” 


28 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


66 Yes.” 

“You read some of it?” 

“Yes, I read some.” 

“Did you never think of confiding yourself with all 
your secret needs and sorrows to Him who knows all 
our needs and sorrows, who from love of us to free us 
from sin and grant us bliss, shed His blood on the 
cross? ” , 

Kurt did not reply. In truth, in secret moments he. 
had often done so, and fervently. Yet his prayers 
had not brought order into the chaos of his inner life. 

The preacher thought lack of faith was at the root 
of the trouble with the young man, never stopping to 
consider whether the conflict in him might not have been 
produced by too strong faith linked with too tender a 
conscience. Therefore, in this belief, as the faithful 
gardener, he attempted to plant the seed of faith. But 
the singular boy with his sensitive soul rejected adjust- 
ment between him and God through Brother Nathaniel’s 
clumsy intermediation. He felt more repelled than at- 
tracted by his counsel. 

The examples of prayers having been heard that 
the brother cited seemed ridiculous to him — petty con- 
firmations of petty miracles— how one man _ had 
prayed for twenty marks, another for a new lining to 
his coat, and so on. On the other hand, there was a 
mass of inflammable material in him easily set ablaze 
into a ravening conflagration. It was a piece of good 
fortune that Nathaniel, full of his meeting with the 
mild Emanuel and enlivened by the freshness of the late 
spring morning, did not begin anew to swing the dark 
torch of doomsday. 

When they reached the end of the cherry-tree walk, 
the two men were touched by the sun’s first warm rays, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 29 


and they ascended a slight slope to see the sun rise over 
the valley’s expanse. Near an immensely tall haystack, 
partly torn away, upon which the light shone most gar- 
ishly, they saw a man kneeling and staring past them 
blindly at the sun, in a state of rapture, like a somnam- 
bulist. 

They stopped and stood still. 

Even though the distant whistle of some factories 
could be heard summoning the men to work, and near- 
by the hum of telegraph wires mingled with the clam- 
our of the larks, yet it was impossible to believe when 
one saw the man kneeling there in the sunlight, that one 
was living in the age of steam and electricity. The 
man wore no clothing over his upper body. His sole 
garment consisted of clay-coloured trousers held at his 
hips by a leather strap. His hands were clasped on his 
knees, and his pale head was thrown back in consuming 
devotion. His red hair encircled his brow, his temples, 
cheeks, and shoulders like flames, sacred flames burning 
an offering that has offered itself. Hus lips were pale. 
His naked skin, like mother-of-pearl, seemed tender anq 
transparent, as if without weight and shot with light, 

“Why,” said Brother Nathaniel, gathering himself 
together and speaking involuntarily. “I dreamt of 
that man the whole night, and I feel as if with my 
soul’s eyes I had seen him in my dreams in that atti- 
tude of prayer.” 


% * * * * * * * 


The sun had scarcely risen a few feet above the hori- 
zon when Emanuel Quint came out of his remarkable, 
sick ecstasy. He looked about him blinking and grop- 
ing as in the dark. He had spent the night on the 
haystack because the evening before he had refused 


30 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the few pennies Brother Nathaniel had offered him. 
He always refused money. ‘Thus it was that he had 
knocked in vain at the inn of the village and asked for 
shelter — a foolish act which, like his whim of not ac- 
cepting money, was a special foolishness of the Fool. 

For a time Emanuel, lost in thought, let his eyes 
rest upon Brother Nathaniel. Then a faint, kindly 
smile gliding over his face showed he recognised the 
fanatic. 

Kurt Simon looked in astonishment now at his com- 
panion, now at Emanuel, as he rose from the stubble of 
the fallow field, took up a coarse shirt lying nearby, and 
with comic difficulty drew it over his head and shoulders. 
Then he and the brother shook hands. 

Without wasting words Emanuel, evidently weary 
and shivering from time to time, joined the two men, 
and all three walked along in silence. 

When Brother Nathaniel spoke finally, Kurt Si- 
mon could detect emotion quivering in his voice. He, 
too, had been singularly stirred by the sight of the 
stranger, and especially by the first sound of his quiet, 
resonant voice. 

“T thought long over what we spoke of yesterday 
even,” said the brother. “TI, too, slept but little. And 
in the half-awake condition I was in you stood at times 
before my eyes. I should like to know, dear brother, 
who you are?” 

“I am a man,” the Fool said in reply. 

The brother seemed to have gained but little by this 
answer, breathed rather than spoken. 

**' Why did you come to me,” he demanded suddenly, 
“if I am not worthy of your confidence? ” 

For an instant Emanuel was silent. He stood still 
in the middle of the field, in the morning, amid the sing- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 31 


ing of birds, looked at the preacher with a look of re- 
proachful love, then bent over his hands and kissed them. 

“TI could tell you who I am,” he declared after they 
had begun to walk again. “ But of what consequence 
is it? What is a name? And what can mine be, which 
no one ever mentioned without disdain? Why should 
I utter it? If I take hold of it and raise it out of the 
dirt that covers it, I raise the top link of a chain of 
sorrow, affliction, and humiliation. I should have to 
raise the chain along with it. I would not! For I 
would not complain! I would not pour out before 
any man the confession of my own grief. I may do so 
only before Him that dwells within me.” 

He had spoken with a slight accent of his native 
dialect. 

“Who dwells within you?” asked Nathaniel. 

“God grant that he who wills to dwell within us is 
within me.” 

Something seemed to be laid like a clamp about the 
head of the young apprentice. He was walking a lit- 
tle behind the other two, looking at the long, swinging 
stride of the ragged man’s naked, dusty, bruised feet 
and the heavy tread of the Moravian Brother. An in- 
visible, yet impenetrable wall seemed to be rising higher 
and higher between him and reality. The earth was 
changed and wondrous, as if time were not, or as if 
the present were the past and the long past were pres- 
ent. 

The struggle of a fantastic conception with reality, 
the reality about him and the reality he had experi- 
enced that very day and the day before, amounted to 
torture. Clasping the little Testament inside his 
pocket, which his foster-mother had given him in her 
concern for his soul’s salvation, it seemed to him as if 


52 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


two figures had stepped out of that book and were 
walking in front of him. Indeed, as if he himself were 
only a figure in the holy narrative, which had been ab- 
sorbing him for weeks. But he said to himself he was 
sick and must not yield to what was probably a vain 
illusion. His father and mother occurred to him. 
They were clear-headed people, and he thought they 
might succeed in dispelling the fantastic cloud envel- 
oping him. He saw no possibility of doing this him- 
self. Now he trembled with joy, now with dread. 
Now he felt like crying to his unsuspecting parents 
across the distant hills: ‘‘ Behold, the Saviour walks 
before me! Behold the son whom you brought forth, 
who gave you more trouble and anguish than your 
other children, he is walking in the footsteps of the 
Saviour!” And now he felt like crymg: ‘* Save 
yourselves from the horrors of perdition! ” 

Perhaps Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had arisen 
again! Why were the larks singing so gaily to-day? 
Why did they fairly rush through the air? Did 
Brother Nathaniel know, or did he not know, who was 
walking beside him? He was talking to his companion, 
but Kurt could not hear what he was saying. 

Nathaniel had mentioned the name of a certain Dor- 
othy Trudel, a Swiss woman, who in her imitation of 
Christ had gone so far as to heal the sick, like Paul 
and Silas. A great blessing went forth from the 
woman, said the brother. 'There was no end of the 
number of those whom she had healed body and soul. 
She had erected an institution in Mennedorf on the 
Lake of Ziirich, in which all sick people taken with 
divers diseases and torments, even those possessed with 
devils, were received and treated. Her faith was great, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 33 


the brother said. It must be great, because her prayers 
possessed mighty power. To be sure, she had not yet 
caused dead to arise from the grave, but by prayer and 
the imposition of hands she had saved many a one from 
precipitating himself into death and damnation. The 
brother himself had seen many blind men whom Dor- 
othy had made to see and many raving maniacs whom 
she had made to behave quietly and sensibly. 

Brother Nathaniel himself was just on his way to 
a sick person. He was of the opinion it was well to 
observe caution and constantly be on one’s guard 
against the wily children of the world. Even Dorothy 
Trudel had often come into conflict with the physi- 
cians, their devilish science, and the temporal authori- 
ties. But persecution had only made her the happier 
in the Lord. It was every Christian’s duty to endure 
persecution after the example of the Saviour and his 
apostles. So, Nathaniel had freed himself of fear and 
made himself ready. 

And he began again to declaim against the curse of 
worldliness, but his pale companion remained grave and 
placid. He said: 

“I cannot denounce. I cannot hate.” And he be- 
gan to ask Brother Nathaniel searching questions, not 
hastily, but with evidently suppressed, ardent interest 
—whether Brother Nathaniel, who was in hopes of 
working like Paul and Silas, was on the right way, and 
whether — here a traitorous red mantled in the Fool’s 
face — one should wish to become so firm in the faith 
as in the name of Jesus Christ to be able to raise the 
dead. 

“What can I teach thee? Teach thou me!” ex- 
claimed Brother Nathaniel in a sudden gust of emotion. 


34 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


And they seated themselves amid the yellow spring 
flowers at the wayside, under a solitary oak tree. Be- 
fore them stretched a field of young wheat. 

It was evident that the brother’s words stirred Eman- 
uel profoundly. Every now and then his face jerked 
and quivered faintly. Kurt Simon watched all that 
went on in a state of almost painful tension. For an 
instant it flashed through his soul — could that pecu- 
larly fascinating drama have been prearranged to con- 
vert or excite him? But he instantly rejected the 
idea. 

Finally, to extricate himself from the impression of 
the miraculous, he confessed to himself that the brother 
and that poor man in rags had spoken of naught but 
things that are commonplaces in a certain circle of the 
pious. And now Brother Nathaniel opened a huge 
black leather bag which he always wore slung by a 
strap over his threadbare pilot-cloth overcoat. He took 
out a bottle of wine, half a loaf of bread, and a small 
bowl of butter, and set them on the ground beside him. 
The sun, risen higher in the heavens and shining on 
the compartments and brown lining of the bag, re- 
vealed to Kurt neatly arranged layers of religious 
tracts, which the brother sold or gave away free to 
children. All this, as it were, sobered Kurt down and 
at the same time filled him with a sense of purely 
earthly well-being. 

It seemed, too, as if the spring beauty blossoming 
forth all about now asserted its rights over the three 
wayfarers, so different one from the other, and pene- 
trated their souls, and drew them to it. Emanuel, the 
red-haired, lost in thought, rested leaning back on the 
juicy grass. It was difficult to decide whether the in- 
ereasing ecstasy on his features was caused more by 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 35 


his inner than by his outer vision. He reclined 

propped on his left arm. He held his right hand 
~ eurved — his hands were well formed and covered with 
freckles. And Kurt Simon noticed how now a wasp, 
now a bee, fearlessly crawled through the hollow of 
his palm. 

In the meantime Brother Nathaniel had gone to a 
spring a stone’s throw away and laid the bottle of wine 
in it. Every now and then his bushy grey head, re- 
sembling more an old weather-beaten warrior’s of Lu- 
ther’s time than a minister’s and herald’s of the king- 
dom of peace, appeared among the willow and elm 
bushes. Not far from Kurt and Emanuel lay the 
brother’s broad, earth-coloured slouched hat, which had 
passed through rain, snow, hail, and tempests, under it 
his stick, and nearby the bag leaning against one of the 
mighty, twisted roots of the oak. 


* *% *% * * * * # 


Since the stranger’s appearance Kurt Simon had not 
ventured a word. Now all of a sudden he heard him- 
self saying what a glorious morning it was. The Fool 
looked at him. 

“Yes,” he said in reply, “it is a beautiful morning. 
But the day which no night followeth will be even more 
beautiful.” The apprentice blushed. ‘“ What we see 
here,”’ the Fool continued with a slight tremour of inner 
rejoicing in his voice, “ is all we are now in a condition 
to bear. It is only a reflection a thousand times re- 
duced of what will be. Of this reflection there is no 
more than the report of a messenger, and of the report 
there is scarcely a word, scarcely a syllable.” 
| ** How will it be, how will it be, when I enter into Sa- 

lem!” Kurt silently exulted. 


36 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The Fool’s proximity transported the young man to a 
state of exuberant hope and security in his hope. He 
determined on some occasion to pour out before this 
man the whole content of his reserved soul with all its 
self-torture and fear of sin. But little more and he 
would have fetched a note-book from his pocket, in 
which he had written a poem of his own composition, 
and would have read it to Emanuel. The poem was a 
lament. He accused himself and spoke of his avoid- 
ance of the world and his triumph over it, of the cold- 
ness and indifference with which the world meets a heart 
overflowing with love. The poem was surcharged with 
a pained, ecstatic yearning for purer spheres 


** Where man to man in love inclines, 
And one great Will the world combines.” 


All that his relatives got from the poem was an 
astonished impression of empty, extravagant phrases. 

Quint suddenly stroked Kurt’s hand, as if he divined 
something of what was moving him. 

“¢My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,’ and 
it is and remains a joyous message,” he added with 
the ring of blithe assurance in his voice, which, how- 
ever, never lost its melodious calm nor turned loud and 
violent. 

When the brother returned, he kneeled on the grass, 
and Quint and Kurt followed his example. He folded 
his hands and prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus, be our 
guest, and bless what Thou hast granted unto us.” 
Then he broke the bread. While they ate, they talked 
of how the celebration of the Lord’s Supper had the 
sense of a daily act, not only of a memorial service. 
Even the short prayer has this significance. A meal at 
which the Lord Jesus is not present is a bestial meal. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 37 


But if He is present, it is a holy act and the eaters par- 
take of heavenly bread and heavenly wine. 

And so in truth they enjoyed heavenly bread and heav- 
enly wine in that state of beatitude in which Quint and 
the brothers Anton and Martin Scharf had eaten to- 
gether. Only this time, in the light of the spring 
morning, in the reverent rustling and shadow of the 
broad oak, their beatitude was even more exalted than 
in the depths of the night in the brothers’ little hut. 

Who will say that these three men did wrong in their 
thoughts and deeds and heaped grievous sin upon them- 
selves by avoiding the church — the bells just then be- 
gan to ring in the distance. Who will say they did 
wrong because in their child-like love of Jesus and the 
simplicity of their faith they had violated the church’s 
commandments? Certain it is, a joy so pure and thrill- 
ing took hold of them that it lifted them above every- 
thing common, raising them, indeed, almost too high 
above the solid foundation of the earth. 

The word of the Lord, ‘* Where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst 
of them,” united them. For they doubted not the word, 
and it did not occur to them that to come to his strayed 
sheep the Saviour must pass by the way of a pulpit, or 
aé communion service, and through the mouth of a 
bishop, or a parson, or a trained theologian. 

They were in accord, and this feeling of harmony 
was at the same time a feeling of unifying warmth. 
The love in their hearts was set free, the love for an 
invisible One present, in which they met and found sat- 
isfaction. 

The romance of the spring about them — the gleam- 
ing colours, the buzz of the insects, the perfume of the 
flowers — combined with the charm of the holy legend 


38 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of Jesus, the son of the Virgin and the Son of God. 
And the secret of His birth and earthly pilgrimage, His 
passion, death, and resurrection, His sacred absence and 
presence, produced a mystic happiness in these three. 

‘A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again 
a little while, and ye shall see me.” Nearly two thou- 
sand years after Christ’s death these words sounded to 
the three men as if Jesus Himself had uttered them 
in their presence, not as if they had come down in an- 
cient writings. 

They spoke of spiritual regeneration, and Brother 
Nathaniel confessed to being a follower of a scattered 
sect. He proved by the Scriptures that the baptism of 
children is an abomination of the church rather than an 
act in the sense of the Saviour. Only a grown man, 
he maintained, could partake of the sacrament, after 
serious self-probation and after he reaches a clear free 
decision through penitence and spiritual chastening. 
Brother Nathaniel developed his view wholly according 
to the doctrine of the Anabaptists. He spoke with 
great impressiveness, and made it quite clear that no 
one had fastened the door of dreadful heathenism be- 
hind him securely enough who had remained without 
the true baptism. 

After they had eaten and drunk they arose and left 
the crumbs of their repast to a flock of finches and bunt- 
ings. What the brother had said about baptism pe- 
culiarly stirred Quint and Kurt Simon. Kurt re- 
mained plunged in thought, while the Fool, as they 
walked along slowly, began a sort of hesitating confes- 
sion to the Anabaptist. He besought Nathaniel to sit 
in Judgment upon him and be merciless with him. And 
after he had learned his arbitrary acts and vain motives 
—or, at least, some of them — he should openly say 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 39 


whether Emanuel could obtain forgiveness and what 
atonement he could make to be worthy of baptism. 

“TI, a sinner,” Emanuel continued, ‘‘ presumed to 
preach to sinners. Because I am scorned I seized upon 
the sentence in the Scriptures in which the Saviour 
says he who has faith shall perform wonders even 
greater than His own. In order to bend the necks of 
my enemies with humiliation I wanted to do signs and 
wonders. Since I could think I clung to that notion. 
For years I went about locked up within myself, and 
dreamt of being a wonder-working king and God. I 
made an idol of myself, and prayed to myself. My 
desires by no means went out to making the lame walk, 
the blind see, and the sick free of pain. I wanted that 
not only I but everybody about me, high and low alike, 
should marvel at me and idolise me.” 

Nathaniel interrupted Emanuel. In a sudden out- 
pouring, as if the Holy Ghost had come upon him, he 
said: 

“Enough. Who is otherwise worthy to baptise his 
neighbour with God’s baptism than by grace and merci- 
fulness? Baptise thou me! For the number of my 
sins 1s legion!” 

Thus they chaffered, because each wanted the other 
to baptise him, and neither felt himself worthy to bap- 
tise the other. 

“TI do not want to be baptised,” thought Kurt Si- 
mon. His soul began to exclude itself gently from the 
bargaining of the other two. Gradually he came to 
see the brother and his companion in the sober light of 
everyday life. They seemed strange and curious. The 
feeling he had had of the divine presence was gone. 
Indeed, for whole minutes he found the conduct of the 
two men almost ridiculous. 


40 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


So, as if not to lose something precious when scarcely 
won, he left abruptly, and walked away across the 
fields. Several times, as he glanced back at the 
dwindling figures of the wayfarers, the word “ obscu- 
rantists *? passed through his mind. 


* * * * * * * * 


The clear, cool water of a brook flowed through the 
fields, in some places freely reflecting the heavens, in 
others concealed by small groups of trees and bushes. 
In one of the groves, where the ground was grassy and 
dotted with flowers, Quint had removed all his clothes, 
while Brother Nathaniel kneeled at the brink of the 
stream praying. A wood-dove was cooing in the lofty 
branches of a noble old birch. 

‘Nuthatches flew from bush to bush. The laughter 
of a magpie resounded lustily. And as the naked white 
body of the poor, misguided Quint moved about on the 
gaily covered mead, it all seemed like a picture from 
the innocent days of mankind, a lovely bit from the 
Garden of Eden. 

As Emanuel set his hot feet in the cold water, he saw 
a swarm of tiny fish dart away quick as thought. Then 
he saw himself in the water. 

The man who was to baptise-and the man to be bap- 
tised, far removed from any frivolous thoughts, experi- 
enced. a feeling of exalted consecration. It is not to be 
denied that they suffered themselves to be misled into 
domg something unheard-of, an act of blasphemy, 
which the law punishes. But if we remember how Jesus 
especially loved the poor in spirit and the simple, we 
will not be without indulgence. 

The intentions of the men were pure. They wept 
with profound emotion — Emanuel almost fainting 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 41 


with ecstasy. But we know they were in error. In 
their infatuation they regarded the kingdom of God 
established on earth by the great and mighty, though 
divided, Church as Babylon. ‘They believed in another 
kingdom of God and thought they divined and under- 
stood it. Round about them was the world, and the 
world was the enemy of the kingdom. Beyond that 
the world was unknown to them. They scarcely knew 
of it from reports. But they would have nothing in 
common with it. They would solely proclaim the word 
of Jesus Christ and his future kingdom on earth. 

Thus, as the water—to him consecrated water — 
ran over his head, shoulders, and breast, the poor work- 
ingman’s son not only felt the thrills of a holy cere- 
mony, but his heart also grew lighter. He had allowed 
the greater part of the responsibility for this act to 
devolve upon Brother Nathaniel. 

Brother Nathaniel was carried away even more than 
Emanuel. His was an unsubdued, easily inflamed tem- 
perament. He had broken the stillness with only one 
question, and his voice was like the rolling of thunder 
as he asked: 

** Dost thou believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God? ” 

Emanuel said, “ I do.” 

Brother Schwarz in the meantime had come to see 
more in Emanuel than an ordinary man. His hopeful 
enthusiast’s nature was violently enraptured. And 
now, as he saw a pair of wood-doves float down from the 
long green hangings of the birches and suddenly, when 
over the baptised man, make a sharp turn and dart 
away, he seemed to himself like John the Baptist, and 
the heavens appeared to be opened unto him. 


CHAPTER III 


Tue carpenter’s son of the Eulen mountains regarded 
his re-baptism on the whole as a confirmation. The 
brother’s manner and his farewell words had been such 
that Emanuel dreaded to draw conclusions from them. 
Within only a few minutes after parting from Brother 
Nathaniel he was already unable to decide whether it 
was his own agitation that had made him see the sky 
open and hear voices, or whether the brother in the ex- 
uberance of his feelings had said so. ‘ This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Even though 
no outward miracle had occurred, it was enough, and 
bliss enough, that such speech had been wrung from the 
soul of Nathaniel Schwarz. 

When only ten years old the Fool had heard the 
brother spoken of in the huts of near and distant 
neighbours, where he used to run in and out, as the chil- 
dren do in those parts. Full of profound reverence he 
esteemed Nathaniel a true man of God, and also an 
authority, notwithstanding that in the meantime his 
own soul had grown to be so sturdy that the brother’s 
strong soul could no longer modify its very peculiar 
condition and stature. 

Emanuel walked on and was full of song. Feverish, 
divinely agitated, he set no goal to his steps. He 
merely made for a distant chain of mountains, and 
avoided the villages near his home. He felt like 
a child who believes that the earth and the sky meet 

42 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 43 


at the horizon and when you step across it you will be 
in heaven. 

Emanuel’s soul was full of love. As people ap- 
proached him he instantly noticed the sorrow and the 
beauty in their faces. If a man, his soul straightway 
said *“‘ Brother.” If a woman, it said “ Sister.” When 
they passed each other, he and the woman, or he and 
the man, his soul said within him: “I know thee, I 
know thy suffering, thy happiness, and thy pain. I 
know thee as myself and thy fate and my fate.” Their 
passing on was a parting to him, and he loved his fel- 
low-men the more that he had to part with them. 
“Thou must go alone with thy beauty whither thou 
wouldst not go,” he sometimes said if it was a beautiful 
woman, who perhaps went her way with a heavy burden. 
Or, if it was a man, he said, “ Thou wilt wander on 
and on with thine ill-concealed yearning, and in thy lone- 
liness thou wilt not find the friend that will open up to 
thee thy kingdom in thine own breast.’”’ And he loved 
them all, and he would fain have taken them all in his 
arms and into his heart, although often enough hate, 
scorn, and contempt stared at him from their mad 
glances. 

He wandered on until sunset. Before again going 
to rest in a haystack he prayed while the sun was set- 
ting, and the next morning he prayed as it arose. And 
his journeying began anew. His nourishment consisted 
of water, which he drank lying stretched flat on the 
ground from the surface of the springs (he avoided the 
villages), of roots, which he took here and there from 
the fields, sometimes of lettuce leaves, and sometimes, 
without having to ask, he got some bread and thin cof- 
fee, remnants of the evening meal which women or chil- 


4A THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


dren carried back from the fields and factories where 
the men worked. 

For all the exaltation and ecstasy of his nature, 
Quint realised, and could not but realise, that the new 
within him was still merely fermentation rather than 
enlightenment. Audacious thoughts thrust themselves 
forward, which were undoubtedly messengers of hell 
intended to lead him to vainglory and sin. The ser- 
pent was subtile. It was still intent upon preventing 
fallen man by all sorts of wiles from returning to his 
paradisiacal state of innocence. “ Ye shall be as gods,” 
Quint forearmed himself. He would not let himself 
be tempted to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. 
But as he walked — and here the sickly disposition of 
his nature asserted itself —he heard insistent voices 
whispering: “* We greet thee, Christ, Son of God! ” 

** That I am not,” said Emanuel. 

But peace came not to him. 

** We greet thee, Christ, Son of God,” the voices said 
again. ‘‘ We greet thee, who art come, who hast de- 
scended from the throne of the Lord in misery, shame, 
and lowliness. Draw nigh on thy way. Draw nigh 
on thy mission. Fear not. Behold, on thy hands and 
feet the marks of the nails have not yet healed. Thou 
feelest within thee the burning distress of all thine 
ancient sufferings. It is fulfilled. The Father hath 
not contrived new sufferings for thee, thou blessed one. 
This time thou shalt not be otherwise than the good 
shepherd, and shalt pipe on the reed, and lead thy flocks 
into gardens and pastures flowing with milk and honey. 
We greet thee, Christ, Son of God.” 

“I am not Christ, the Son of God,” said Emanuel. 
And as he wanted to add, “ I am only a man,” the words 
involuntarily came to his tongue, “ I am only the son of 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 45 


man.” But this alarmed him. It occurred to him that 
the Saviour had called himself by that name. So, 
wherever he turned, the serpent had a trap set for him. 
There was nothing for him to do but recall his words 
quickly and say: ‘** Get thee hence. I do not call my- 
self the son of man.” 

But for hours, as he walked on, he reflected upon 
these things more profoundly, and finally it no longer 
seemed to him to be transgressing Christ’s command- 
ment to call himself, as he had, the son of man. The 
Saviour’s birth on earth, like his own, undeniably bore 
the marks of extreme abjectness in so far as Joseph, 
his mother’s husband, was not his father. Jesus, there- 
fore, like himself, Emanuel, was fatherless, and Eman- 
uel ventured to compare all the secret sufferings he 
had had to endure on that account, all his tormenting 
shame and bitterness, with the Saviour’s sufferings for 
the same reason. How it must have filled the boy Jesus 
with shame and horror when other children spoke of 
their fathers and asked him about his, and he knew not 
his name. What stinging pain it must have caused him 
when he grew older that many of those low, rough men 
about him could speak differently of their mothers than 
he could of his. 

Emanuel clenched his teeth. How many hundreds of 
times from deep-felt shame had he not denied his 
mother and father, and so made a fool of himself. 
Must not Christ, who knew all the secret sufferings of 
the soul as no one else knew them, have gone through 
the same experience? Did He not in all likelihood in 
answer to the prying questions of the Pharisees. raise 
Himself up proudly one day from out of the pressure 
of shame to the free height of the Son of man? And 
was it not His intention in assuming that name to wipe 


46 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


away beforehand for all time the mark of undeserved 
shame from the brows of all coming generations? 

On a sudden Quint was convinced it must have been 
so and not otherwise, and he determined to enter upon 
this portion of the inheritance of the Saviour with pure 
confidence. ‘* He it is and not Satan,” he assured him- 
self, ‘“ Whose being reveals itself to me at this mo- 
ment, with this thought.” 

Quite involuntarily he drew himself up and walked 
with a freer, firmer gait. It was no longer a violent 
voice blowing “ Son of God ” into his ears. There was 
a clear, mute realisation within him that he as the son 
of man was walking through the fields. He knew of a 
king sitting upon his throne in Berlin, the capital of 
the empire. But in his new dignity he suddenly dis- 
cerned that he, Emanuel Quint, the bastard — thus his 
stepfather often called him!— was no less before God. 
The son of man is lord of the world. 

The brownish road unrolled itself before him like a 
strip of cloth. The earth with its cities, towers, streams, 
and green crops, spread rugs, as it were, strewn with 
precious things between him and the mountains — all 
the inheritance and possession of the son of man. 
The heaven unfurled its broad blue silk tent over him. 
The sun was his chandelier. The larks were singing to 
the son of man. The crops were ripening for the son of 
man. ‘The groves were whispering his name in homage. 
There was nothing mightier or more glorious in the 
wide world than he whom the birds, the breezes, the 
blades of grass and the leaves greeted in chorus: 
** Blessed be he and praised be he, who comes in the 
name of the Lord! Nothing more glorious than the 
son of man!” 

**T seek not mine own glory, but His glory that sent 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 47 


me,” a voice within him spoke again. And it fright- 
ened him so that the fields, woods, and hills ceased to 
call him, suddenly turning dumb. The Fool under- 
stood that there was a conflicting rise and fall within 
him. A wave of light seemed always to be driving away 
a wave of darkness, and a wave of darkness, a wave of 
light. The struggle went on wholly independently of 
his will. It was so strong, so independent of Quint that 
at times it was as if he were standing aside and merely 
looking on in tense interest and astonishment. 

“No, no, I seek not mine own glory. But I was 
again about to fall into temptation and a snare. Is it 
God? Is it Satan that is tempting me? Is it not to 
God that we pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation ’?” 
And he said the Lord’s prayer, which Jesus taught. 
Whereupon he turned from Him to whom it was ad- 
dressed to Him who taught it, and in spirit he followed 
in the footsteps of the Saviour, as he had done so often 
before. 

Quint loved the Saviour. The poor Fool, or in this 
respect the happy Fool, had conceived a love of the 
gracious Jesus so great that when he thought of Him 
his heart ached. His love for Jesus was not of this 
earth. 

Nearly two thousand years before Jesus had walked 
on earth, and now for the first time a man stepped 
from his hut by the roadside and with a few others 
looked in the direction whither the holy pilgrim had 
disappeared. Forthwith Quint set out like a faithful 
dog to seek His traces, and there had been no other 
assuagement of his ardent yearning than day and night 
to follow those traces. He fell asleep —when he 
_ slept — over Jesus’ footsteps. 

His love of Jesus was infinite. He had guarded in 


48 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


his bosom the well-thumbed Testament which contained 
the story of the son of Mary. And he felt as if a . 
dear hand in it always soothed his heart. Nay, more, 
he himself was the Book, which, like John, he fairly 
devoured. It lived in him, and he lived in it. Had it 
not dwelt within him, death would have stepped in its 
place. -Had he not dwelt in the Book, the rain would 
have pierced him with needles, the sun have scorched 
him, the heavens have fallen upon him like a rock. But 
thus the cold of death hurt him not, nor the winter’s 
ice, nor the heat of the day, nor the fierceness of the 
night. But he rested not gladly. As long as he was 
not upon his feet, it seemed to him that the space grew 
wider between him and the Friend who walked before 
him on earth and in heaven, and that he had a smaller 
share in Him. 

A child that has lost its mother and, crying, runs in 
search of her, has no greater love in its soul than this 
idle carpenter’s apprentice, who craved the sight of the 
Saviour. He was ready to lose himself in the Saviour. 
Hence, the sentence “ I seek not mine own glory” had 
scarcely entered his consciousness, when he became all 
self-abnegation and humility, and far from presuming 
to be a shepherd he felt he was the least sheep in the 
fold. 

It was in this sense and no other that he wanted 
to be a follower of the Saviour. But his love made 
stronger claims upon him and enticed him farther and 
farther. It was not enough for his love calmly to en- 
dure the results of a passive imitation of Christ. It 
would follow the Shepherd along all the labyrinthine 
paths He had gone. Not one of the things He had 
suffered would Quint omit. He would be like Him in 
all respects, and so nearer to Him. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 49 


“We eat Thy flesh and drink Thy blood, as Thou 
_ didst command us,” Quint pondered. ‘“ Does that not 
signify we should be like unto Thee in all things? 
Didst Thou not in Thine infinite love bid us be like 
Thee? Didst Thou not open to us the prospect of that 
exceeding bliss? Seek in the Scriptures! Yes, seek, 
seek!” And Quint drew out his Testament and turned 
the leaves. Clearly what must be sought for cannot be 
evident. But seek, and ye shall find! Seek! And 
Quint wanted to seek. 

He wanted to remain forty days and forty nights in 
the wilderness, and like his prototype expose himself 
to all the hardships of want and the weather. In that 
period the Saviour and the Saviour alone was to dwell 
‘within him. He wanted to give himself up to Him 
without reserve. And if it be so indeed that Satan 
once tempted the anointed of the Lord, then forsooth 
let the devil tempt him also. For he would not be an 
idler in the kingdom. ‘“ Reject me or enlighten me, 
Lord, after my sojourn in the wilderness. Give me a 
new spirit or cast me from Thee if Thou findest me 
unworthy. Send me out through the gates of Thy 
passion and death, or condemn me to nothingness. Or 
let me at least touch the hem of Thy mantle. Then 
shall I never be wholly lost. Let me kiss the ground 
where Thou didst walk, the stone that was Thy pillow, 
the thorns of the crown they put upon Thine head. 
Then will an everlasting prize of eternal light be my 
joy and comfort in the deepest darkness of the deepest 
abyss.” 


* * * * % * * * 


Several times in the course of the day Quint saw the 
flash of a gendarme’s helmet either on the highroad 


50 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


he was approaching or behind the bushes separating 
field from field. Like a tramp he would conceal him- 
self somewhere in a ditch, or in the fields, and wait until 
the dreaded man on horseback had disappeared from 
view. But now one of those mighty ones came riding 
across a field straight at him, his Friesian horse stepping 
carefully in the furrows, now in a walk, now at a trot. 
It came to a halt directly in front of Quint, and the 
gendarme proceeded to ask the usual questions. 

Quint knew what was in store for him. He had no 
papers giving his name, birthplace, or trade, and he 
could not think of making the heavy cavalryman under- 
stand the cause and purpose of his vagabondage. In 
his eyes he was moneyless, ragged, without any rights, 
at the mercy of the man’s arbitrary interpretation of” 
the law, although Quint had no evil intentions, and 
was merely following the inclination of his childlike 
soul. The gendarme gave him a piercing look. 

‘Oh, let nothing in my soul be hidden from thee,” 
the Fool thought. 

But the man of law, though his outward appearance 
gave the opposite impression, was blind. He saw a 
terribly poor man, whose features were pale and suf- 
fering, but not disfigured by drink. He heard a voice 
that willingly gave him information. Yet he could not 
believe otherwise than that here, if ever, a jail-bird 
stood in front of him. So he gave Quint a good 
rough talking to. Nevertheless, after he had relieved 
himself by saying some severe things, he seemed at a 
loss to know exactly what to do. And — whether his 
wife had his midday meal ready for him, or in the 
village nearby there was immediate prospect of a pint 
of beer and some lunch — however that may be, in- 


stead of hauling the idle fellow off to the police lock-up, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 51 


he merely gave him a last frightful, bloodthirsty look, 
and rode away. 

Quint thanked the Lord. He saw divine intervention 
in that unexpected issue of the adventure. And the 
same thing took place in his soul as always. He had 
gradually recognised in the man’s hard mask the dead, 
professional, painfully forced grimace behind which 
a starving soul languished. And that soul had shone 
forth upon him beseechingly from an involuntary 
glance, from the depths of the eyes, which never lie. 
Distressed, he looked after the rider. He did not hate 
the man. He loved him. 

% % * * * % * 


On the third day of his wanderings Quint reached a 
wild deserted spot in a gloomy mountain region, from 
which there was a vast view over the mountains, hills, 
and plains of Silesia. It was in defiance of his own 
fear that he had made for it. The loneliness, the pro- 
found quiet of the desolate woods, through which he 
passed, the rushing surprise and whispered councils of 
the treetops, when he stood still amid the ferns, mosses, 
stones, and roots, all oppressed him. It seemed as if 
here the noiselessness and solitude, which have always 
been his good, true friends, rose up and turned into a 
dreadful force, and said things to dash his vain, un- 
heard-of venture. He had climbed up the mountain 
side holding his fingers in his ears not to have to hear 
the thousand-tongued hissing of a host of demons, each 
minute increasing in number. Sometimes he had 
pressed himself on the ground and stopped his ears 
with his fists. He refused to listen to the lying 
trumpet-calls of a judgment day lyingly proclaimed 
by the devil. He believed it was an invention of Satan. 
For he said to himself: 


‘52 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“T will go to Jesus. And if the mountains rise 
about me like awful judges, and the black clouds on 
the peaks begin to growl, and winds blow like trumpets 
making the tree-tops groan, all this, like the wicked, 
scornful laughter mingled with it, which I cannot help 
hearing, is nothing but the jugglery of the devil.” 

But it was the laughter of the mocking bird that he 
heard, then again the bizarre wail of a bird of prey, 
which penetrated to the very marrow of his bones, and 
seemed to him like the evil, racking cries of a soul tor- 
tured in hell-fire. 

But when he had climbed above the zone of trees, 
the Fool grew easier at heart. Those great, unaccus- 
tomed impressions no longer threatened him, but sud- 
denly lifted him from the dust of debasement to an 
exalted height. He saw the world beneath him. The 
mountains, whose rocky crater-like walls formed a semi- 
circle about him and towered into the clouds, had be- 
come a stool for his feet. He breathed freely. He 
turned to the infinite expanse of the heavens, and said 
“God!” He turned to the gay, undulating carpet 
of the plains, flecked with the shadows of white clouds, 
and said * God!” He turned his back to the depths 
and looked marvelling upon the jagged walls and 
ledges of the mountains, and said “God!” He looked 
upon the gigantic boulders tumbled one over the other 
as if great cyclopean hands had gathered them together 
in a thousand years of work, and suddenly before he 
was capable of uttering the name of God, a voice whis- 
pered in his ear: 

“Tf thou be the Son of God, command that these 
stones be made bread.” 

But Emanuel was on his guard. He refused to listen 
to the voice that made him the Son of God, and behaved 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 53 


as if the voice had tempted him to put that request 
_ to Jesus. And he begged the Saviour for forgiveness. 

“{ know Thou canst do it!” he said. ‘ And I 
know Thou wilt do it if I asked Thee! But man shall 
not live by bread alone!” 

This reflection, it appeared to the Fool, stayed his 
hunger, which had been troubling him for several hours. 

“But by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God.” This set him to thinking further. 

Quint was strangely ignorant. He had learned to 
read for the sake of the Bible, and his mind went ex- 
ploring in it. Whatever other obvious things he was 
surrounded by from childhood he knew only by their 
natural reflection in his soul and by that love which 
bound him to everything that is. Therefore sky, 
clouds, sun, day, night, moon, and stars remained a 
pure mystery to him. Also the earth with its living 
beings, the stones and the grass. 

And now in the profound solitude, as he compre- 
hended it all inwardly through his senses of sight and 
hearing, it seemed to him that every creature and the 
whole of the surrounding world was the manifestation 
of the word that had proceeded out of the mouth of 
God. 

God spoke to him, and he wanted to listen. He 
wanted to be all ears, all eyes, all love. ‘* Perhaps,” 
he said to himself, “‘ the mighty voice of the Godhead 
will be more than I can bear.’? But then he thought 
“I would gladly die by God’s word.” Already he felt 
disembodied. Sometimes he seemed to be so expanded 
by the word, so filled with it, so borne away into infinity 
that he scarcely felt anything in and about him as per- 
taining to himself. And yet, as he knew, he was 
nothing but a poor novice in the word. 


54 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness had 
been in a worse plight than he, who had Jesus for a 
friend and companion. Moreover, he had Jesus for 
a model. He was ignorant of the number before him 
that had been tempted in the imitatio Christi, which was 
a special snare of the devil. 

He believed that like the Saviour he had been led into 
the wilderness by the Spirit and not by Satan. Also 
he could cling to the Saviour. Therefore he always 
overcame his dread. 

Finally, while laboriously making his way through 
the high knee-pine on an overgrown path, he began to 
seek a hidden place among the boulders where he could 
find shelter from the wind and rain and, if need be, 
conceal himself from the eyes of man—a place for a 
permanent sojourn. 

‘Ts it not enough for thee,” the devilish voice within 
him asked suddenly, ‘ what is written of the Saviour’s 
temptation in thy book? ‘Thinkest thou it is too little? 
Thinkest thou it is a lie? Or dost thou not understand 
what is said therein? ” 

**T will suffer it,?? Emanuel said half aloud. And 
now the silence was endowed with fresh terror. The 
walls of his soul seemed to fall asunder, and his inner 
being to become boundless. In the enchantment of 
the silence, in its magic spell, his fancy had to bring 
forth pictures incessantly, a series of pictures which 
seemed to chase one another as in a race. Ever 
swifter they became and ever more grotesque. As if 
the words “I will suffer it” had been a signal for the 
outburst of the powers of darkness, whose intention, it 
seemed, was utterly to confound their victim. 

Is the silence God? Is the silence Satan? Are 
those half-beastly, half-human masks grinning at me 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 55 


God’s or the devil’s work? Why does the world all 
of a sudden disclose in a thousand disgusting images 
the horrible obscenity it usually keeps hidden? Why 
are mine eyes filled with the sight of filth, vile hate, 
murder, and every impious, unnatural desire? Why is 
the holy current in my bosom dammed up by a curse? 
By the grunting of swine and the baaing of goats? 
Why do I hear those coarse, hideous foul sounds which 
baseness alone can utter? Even what is holy dragged 
through sewers amid fiendish laughter, stained with 
filth, repulsively distorted, and placed before my shud- 

dering soul? | 

Suddenly a voice cried aloud and awakened the echo 
between the rocky walls: 

“Thou knowest not what thou wouldst suffer, nor 
all that Christ suffered! ” 

“‘ For that very reason I must now learn,” said Quint 
to himself, and took courage, and began anew to break 
his way through the knee-pine. 

After some searching he found a rude little structure 
of unhewn blocks of granite, the crevices filled in with 
moss, and a roof poorly constructed of old weather- 
worn box-lids, on which were spread layers of vegetable 
mould. Instead of a door one side was left entirely 
without a wall. Quint had to bend his head to enter. 
Inside he found a raised couch of dried moss, large 
enough for him to lie on. If he bent his head he could 
use it as a seat too, and keep his feet out of the damp. 
Here one could remain for days and weeks. 


* * * * * * cd * 


It was nearing the middle of the month of May and 
all that was left of the snow in the mountains were 


a few dingy slabs. During the day a weak wind from 


56 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the south had still blown. After taking a drink of 
water from a rill to appease his hunger Quint stretched 
himself on the couch of moss. Twilight fell. The air 
grew soft and silent. The stars came out in the 
heavens, and the moon arose. The heavens, like an 
endless, gold-embroidered silken sail, swelled over the 
mountains and plains fading away in the twilight. It 
was as if the countless voices of nature had for many 
months restlessly been seeking that perfect harmony 
which they had at last found. Quint had dreaded the 
night. And yet it gave him more than a foretaste of 
future bliss. All the demons seemed to be chained or 
locked in their cages. Or else the magic of beauty 
had silenced them and made them happy. Swarms of 
gnats buzzing metallically made a dancing, transparent 
cloud between the eyes of the Fool and the full moon. 
Sounding so pleasantly the cloud seemed to grow one 
with his spirit, aye, to become his very soul now turned 
visible and audible. 

Between dreaming and waking Quint gradually fell 
into a state of bliss such as he had never before experi- 
enced. Half conscious he determined henceforth to 
avoid intercourse with men and, as now in the silence, 
give himself up entirely to the love of God. If now, 
he thought, a human being were to step into his vision, 
he must perforce hate him like a ghost. Every human 
being? At any raté every man! Every man— and 
how if it were the Saviour? He left that question 
unanswered. The Saviour is in me and invisible. Thus 
he tried to excuse himself that he was about to disown 
the Saviour. 

Nobody should come, not even a woman. He ap- 
peared to himself to be wedded to the glory and the 
balmy -stillness. The wilderness of rocks about him 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 57 


was something altogether different from hard cold 
stone. Everything sent forth a living warmth like 
the bodies of animals in their stalls, except that this 
warmth was pure and balsamic. There was in it a some- 
thing exciting and enrapturing, which intoxicated. It 
was mingled of sweet odours from flowers and blooming 
grasses, sending forth tickling pollen, which gave out 
a wild, secret laughter. The floor of the hut was 
covered with branches of dwarf pine, in which were 
a goat’s horn and a piece of goat’s skin. That is why 
Quint in his dreams saw flocks of goats and goat- 
footed shepherds, who bustled about with buckets full 
of milk and great round cheeses. Many of the 
shepherds were horned and wore wreaths of pine 
branches. 

As the blood throbbed hot through the veins of the 
Fool, so the whole of nature seemed to be pulsating. 
There was something of delightful nakedness in it all. 
And the breath of nakedness kept rising warmer and 
warmer, drugging the senses. The moonlight poured 
like anointing-oil over the soft forms of the crags and 
peaks, and something like an abyss of scarlet opened 
and shut again, opened and shut again before Quint’s 
closed eyes, something he wearied not of seeing until 
it disappeared. ‘Then on a sudden a woman danced 
before him stark naked, an Eve with voluptuous breasts. 
She flung herself back and tossed back the waves of her 
red hair. ‘Then she planted her hands in the swelling 
flesh of her hips and turned about slowly. The Fool 
started up from his sleep, and cried aloud: 

** Get thee hence, Satan! ” 

% # % * % # % * 


When morning came Quint:was a-hungered, and he 
went forth in search of something to eat. At the edge 


58 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of a broad plateau it seemed to him the tinkling of the 
bells of a herd sounded from the pastures below. It 
was only the gurgling of a rill hidden under the stones. 
But in the distance Quint noticed a solitary house. 
Being far-sighted he could see goats and kine leave 
the stable attached to it, could see them raise their 
heads and sniff the cool morning air, and then run to 
water. | 

It was no longer balmy as during the night. The 
south wind was blowing steadily, and the Fool shivered. 

For a while he watched what was going on at the 
little hut, which at that distance resembled a toy. He 
saw the herd form and leave the place. For about a 
quarter of an hour it moved in a certain direction, 
coming nearer to him, and then it reached its pasture. 

Quint descended to hunt for the shepherd. | 

He found a frightfully ragged fellow with blubber 
lips and unkempt hair. The man started in alarm 
when he caught sight of Quint. But the stranger 
seated himself quietly on a granite block at a safe 
distance, and the goats and kids and even the buck went 
sniffing around him confidingly. So the shepherd paid 
no further attention to him and serenely knocked the 
ashes from his hide pipe. 

Quint waited quite a while. The heavy cows grazed 
quietly. At times one of them raised its head and lowed 
and gave the stranger a blank-eyed stare. Finally 
Quint stepped up to the shepherd. 

** I am thirsty.” 

*“'There’s plenty of water here to drink,” the man 
answered promptly in his scarcely intelligible dialect. 

** Give me a drink of milk, for God’s sake.” 

The man looked at Quint with his swollen, blistered 
eyes, and crossed himself. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 59 


**T am as poor as you,” he said. 

**T have not eaten anything for two days.” 

The man put down his pipe, as if he had seen an ap- 
parition, fetched a tin can from a hiding place under a 
dwarf pine, and crept, like an animal upon its prey, 
to a blackish-brown blazed cow, whose udder almost 
dragged on the ground. He lured her into the knee- 
pine, where he milked her in concealment. Suddenly 
he was standing behind Quint, handing the can of 
milk over his shoulder. Quint drank greedily and felt 
refreshed. And thenceforth he went to the poor shep- 
herd daily, and the shepherd gave him milk and willingly 
shared his hard bread with him, apparently with ever 
greater pleasure. 


* * * * * * * * 


Each day the poor Fool spent by himself seeing no 
one beside the shepherd, he sank deeper into the world 
of his dreams. “Everybody who has experienced the 
charm of a walking-tour, especially in the mountains, 
knows what a wealth of pictures it evokes, what an 
abundance of large sensations. Little wonder, then, 
if Quint under the influence of prolonged solitude and 
planless wanderings gradually lost all sense of the real 
and at timés became so intoxicated by new powerful 
sensations that he scarcely felt he was mortal. 

The one thing to bring such extravagance back to 
reality is the sound of a human voice. In his isolation 
Quint heard only the breathing and rushing of nature, 
and held converse only with the stars and the winds. 
Thus he came to feel his existence as scarcely other 
than a spirit, a holy ghost, hence divine. What the 
serpent had said in paradise passed through his mind. 
Had not the Saviour’s rosy blood nullified that hun- 


60 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


dred-thousand-year-old.sin, and made free the way of 
the tree of knowledge? Yea, were not bread and wine 
sanctified by Jesus the fruit of knowledge, and had not 
he, Quint, eaten of that fruit? Of that fruit of which 
the serpent had said, “In the day ye eat thereof ye © 
shall be as gods.” 

He was as God, resolved into all that.is lofty, often 
for hours at a time. Then ‘ofttimes he would stand at 
the edge of precipitous crags and look down into the 
depths fearlessly with a bacchantic smile. Beneath him 
solitary birds of prey started up and drifted about 
Jost in the pathless space. Sometimes he would seem 
to hear mocking laughter from below, and he felt as if 
to answer that peal he must leap triumphantly into the 
abyss. ‘Then, he knew, he should float and glide along 
more airily than a dove. 

The secret strength of this craving was great. He 
often felt it, and rebuked himself. And after he had 
checked the inner assault he told himself: ‘ Thou 
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” But it was not 
only the craving to see faith or the miraculous con- 
firmed, nor was it a mad belief in his supernatural 
powers. It was a sort of certainty, a feeling of his 
own indestructibility, joined to a frantic transport of 
impatience to mock the powers of death, the powers of 
the abyss, with a cry of triumph, even were it in earthly 
death. 

Such outbursts were sometimes followed by the pro- 
foundest contrition. And when the voices again began 
that called “Son of God! Son of God!” and would 
not be silenced, the poor man crouched on his knees 
praying and wrestling with his soul for hours, and at 
the end — sometimes after coming out of a heavy faint 
— he found his head and body covered with sweat and 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 61 


heard himself still stammering prayers to the Saviour 
beseeching Him to set him free from the too-difficult 
calling of the imitation. 

After such moments of exhaustion the world of a 
sudden beckoned to him enticingly —no longer the 
world that is a woman who lies in travail and brings 
forth sorrow. The world laughed and danced in last- 
ing youth and beauty. Quint thought he merely had 
not known the world, and if now he were tranquilly 
to descend to the abodes of men, it would cease to be 
rude to him. It was as if he had taken hold of the 
end of a golden thread and all he needed to do was 
follow it through the labyrinths of human intercourse 
in order no longer to be poor, despised, and wretched; 
as if a spark of light from hell had suddenly disclosed 
to him all the shallow tricks and wiles which make the 
cunning rich in the twinkling of an eye; and as if sud- 
denly his fool’s tinsel were turned into gold. 

It was nothing good that stirred within him, that 
he well knew, though it went on very quietly unac- 
companied by the hissing of devilish tongues. He 
would do what they all do — fight hate with hate, rage 
with rage, abuse with abuse. War would be brought 
against war! Lie against lie! Deceit against deceit! 
He would go forth in search of prey in defiance of all 
the robbers and greedy beasts of prey. He would 
grab, spoil, amass wealth, which moth and rust corrupt. 
He would take, and take, and take the pennies from the 
widows and orphans, the cover from the cold, the bread 
from the hungry. And the voice of his own greed 
would drown the cries and curses of the cheated and 
the robbed, the hungry and the ruined, the tortured 
and the sick and the murdered.— And of course he 
would have to renounce Jesus. 


62 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“That would make life easy,” poor Quint thought 
rightly. But his ideas fell into confusion again be- 
cause the constraint he had to put upon himself to 
desert the Saviour for the sake of the world was insuf- 
ferable. 

No, he would not pray to Satan, for: ‘“ Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve.” Thus he admonished himself. And a change 
took place in him. Once more entirely returned to 
Jesus he determined to give himself up again to His 
gospel with a pure, calm soul. 

# x # # % # * * 


He lay in his hiding-place stretched on the moss, 
and read and reflected, or, pacing up and down slowly, 
he took up the Scriptures sentence by sentence and 
meditated upon them searchingly. The atmosphere 
about him grew calmer. And his desire for the uni- 
versal word of God in nature turned toward the revela- 
tions contained in the letters of the Holy Writ. 

The nearer Whitsuntide drew the more peaceful Quint 
became. His soul ripened with a knowledge of new, 
peculiar things — a knowledge that smoothed down the 
roughnesses of his nature. 

God became man, he said to himself. That was the 
mystery. He became entirely human. And that was 
the greatest of the miracles. Why did he become 
human? That he might be both a human and a divine 
example to man. Because it is only in the human that 
man can conceive the divine. What follows? he pon- 
dered further. That with perfect faith and confidence 
we should first comprehend the human in the life of 
the Saviour, and try to understand it better and better, 
that we should love Him and emulate Him in a human 
way. So Quint resolved to do. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 63 


In this disposition of mind he was all humility. The 
new spirit, which proved stable, unconsciously estranged 
him from the teachings of Brother Nathaniel, and even 
brought him into conflict with his own former conduct. 
He meant to be truly humble, and he rejected all his 
former visionary dreams, his ecstatic transports and ex- 
cesses. Assuredly as always he would be a disciple 
of Christ, but entirely within the realm of the human. 
Teach less and do more. Not to succumb to the spirit 
of vainglory, the evil spirit of self-deception, he would 
rather turn from the seeming-divine and be all the more 
inwardly human. 

He no longer thought of doing wonders, For he 
had read how Jesus had rebuked the sign-seeking, 
adulterous, and sinful generation. He also pondered 
upon the Saviour’s warning against false prophets and 
workers of miracles, and he wanted not to be one of 
them. 

Quint could scarcely do enough in his passionate de- 
sire to humble himself. He had vaguely recognised a 
certain disharmony between Christ and even the dis- 
ciples of old. Believing he stood on the side of the 
Master, he intended to kill off in himself the desire for 
miracles and rewards, which the Saviour had observed 
with sorrow in His disciples. He wanted to be the 
least, by no means the first, of the ministers of the Word. 

He now looked with suspicion upon everything that 
is loud. At this stage of his strange career, he dis- 
dained soaring plans. He would be as the babes and 
sucklings, pure of heart, a tree full of fruit. He would 
act Christ’s teachings, not teach them. Like the tree, 
he should be known by his fruit. 

_ Therefore it was not as an especially excellent teacher, 
or disciple, or prophet that he wanted to go down 


64 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


among men. He wanted to do good in secret rather 
than openly. Jesus would surely guide him. And 
Quint would not threaten or promise, but first walk 
along one of the golden paths of the soul that Jesus 
had laid like a strip of paradise through the wilderness 
of the earth. He would serve all and command none. 
That was the Fool’s prodigious, wholly impracticable 
resolve. } 


* * * % * * * * 


He said the Lord’s prayer daily. And because he 
found it written that the disciples had not prayed at 
all before Jesus, at their special request, had taught 
them the Lord’s prayer, that was the only prayer he 
said. He prayed in a childlike spirit. 

Gradually, in being limited to this one prayer, a 
strange delusion seized him and unfortunately took firm 
root. He thought the prayer was actually not a 
prayer, but the essence of Christ’s teachings compressed 
into a few sentences to be a lodestar for learners. 
“Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy 
name.” ‘This was said not for them that pray but for 
God. To whom were the words addressed? To a 
higher God than God? Quint thought they were ad- 
dressed to the Ghost, the God-spirit that 1s in man. 
He felt the audacity of this thought, but he continued 
his sickly ponderings. “Thy kingdom come.” To 
whom were those words addressed? Again it seemed 
to him to the Ghost. He felt how, as he prayed, he 
directed them as it were to himself. It seemed with 
that he had struck a holy spring within himself, had 
awakened a pure, holy endeavor, a new active Holy 
Ghost. And within us also is the kingdom. Through 
the Ghost it should be established in our being. ‘ Thy 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 65 


will be done!” Was that a human request? The al- 
_mighty will of the almighty God, the supreme Jehovah, 
should His will be done? A petty mortal should pray 
for that? And to whom, to whom was he to pray 
for it? If the sentence had been, “ Do with me ac- 
cording to Thy will,’ that would have been impotence, 
not a prayer. 

But Quint referred this also to the Ghost. 

The will of the Ghost should be done, even if the 
body were thereby consumed to ashes. 

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Well, that was 
a great deal dismissed very shortly. Perhaps this re- 
quest, Quint thought, was a concession to the disciples, 
who had been hungry for gifts. 

“And forgive us our debts!” We are debtors, we 
need forgiveness, all without exception, Quint thought. 
And he could not rid himself of the notion that this, too, 
was only a mock request. “As we forgive our debtors.” 
To that extent and no further are we to be forgiven our 
sins. 

“And lead us not into temptation,” came at last. 
What did this, the most remarkable request, signify ? 

The Fool had once asked himself the question in an 
attack of folly when he was saying the Lord’s prayer 
according to his wont. And the Evil One whispered in 
his ear, “It means, leave us in peace.” But Quint 
suppressed the hideous voice. “ Tempt us not! Tempt 
us not!” Was not the Evil One the Tempter? 
Hence, did not the prayer signify, “Seduce us not 
through false pretences! Set no traps and snares in 
our way! Provoke us not to resistance by trials and 
sufferings! Cause us not, from our needs and lusts, 
to trespass against our neighbours. Seat us not in 
judgment seats that we may not- pronounce bloody 


66 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


judgments upon our fellow-sinners. Cause us not to 
be kings that we may not exercise power and go to 
perdition through power. Lead us not to rape, mur- 
der, and theft! Tempt us not, for we are weak. 
Expect not deeds of one divinely strong and sinless from 
us poor mortals groping in the dark. Extinguish not 
the smoking wick, but deliver us from evil. Ours be 
the Ghost and the peace.” | 

It was an awful God to whom we had to address the 
prayer to lead us not into temptation. And Quint felt 
how the Saviour had tried to remove the hardness and 
fearfulness from a fearful representation of God. 
Hallowed and beloved be Thy name, not with shudder- 
ing and horror—this sounded in the whole prayer. 
We invoke in Thee what is love, and what we invoke, 
love invokes in us. ‘Thus far the Fool was on the right 
way. But he went still farther. He dethroned the 
personal God and believed that Jesus had dethroned 
Him and in His stead had set the Ghost. 

This conception dominated, almost coerced him, and 
caused him profound astonishment. It was so strong 
that at times he well-nigh denied that he stood on the firm 
earth, breathed the air, was canopied by the heavens. 
His dwelling-place seemed to be the Ghost alone. All 
his movements and especially everything he could in 
a higher sense call his life went on as in a sea com- 
posed of the souls of all the men that had lived for 
hundreds of thousands of years. Besides that he knew 
nothing, or, at least, nothing but darkness. 

Conceive of all the human beings, old men, old 
women, men and women of all ages, children, all that 
cover the globe, each with a light in his hand. Some- 
thing similar was what Quint conceived. They stood 
apart from one another, yet their lights merged into 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 67 


one. So, divided from him in body, they were yet one 
with him in light. A hunger for the souls of people 
came upon him as never before, a painful love and 
yearning. It was as if in the light of his boundless love 
of Jesus the man, a profound knowledge of man’s 
worth and man’s mission had been granted him. Love 
of mankind gnawed at him. It filled the Fool with a 
consuming passion. He wanted to go to his brothers 
and sisters. He wanted no longer to remain cold- 
heartedly apart from them, as he had done before in 
his self-seeking. 

He forgot himself wholly. That is, he forgot his 
former joys and sorrows. He thought he perceived 
that mankind is the dwelling-place of the Godhead. 
And while he looked upon the house of God still dazzled 
by its light and splendour, divining rather than seeing 
it, the circumstance of his own individual little life 
seemed of no significance before that exalted thing. 

Hence a craving for self-sacrifice came upon him, 
a yearning to give himself up to the universal, freed 
from the singleness of his body as from a prison cell 
— his light to the light, his love to the love, in order 
to be freed from himself and from love and be eternally 
perfect in God. 

The complete inner transformation of Emanuel 
Quint was a most remarkable process. What was re- 
markable in it is that a pure childlike spirit of enthusi- 
asm had replaced the greater part of his enthusiasms 
by some apparently rational considerations, which 
gradually combined into a firm system holding the 
Fool’s soul in far more absolute subjection than had 
his former purely emotional ecstasy. It often hap- 
pened that he himself was alarmed when he saw how 
far his meditations had led him away from all his 


68 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


former paths now that he was one with Jesus the man, 
as he supposed, and deep in the mystery of the king- 
dom of God. The joy of the discoverer dominated 
him. But he determined for the present to keep 
secret what he had discovered and what he thought he 
understood when in sudden clairveyance the scales fell 
from his eyes. 


CHAPTER IV 


One day the brothers Anton and Martin Scharf ap- 
peared before Emanuel Quint. For weeks they had 
been seeking him. And now the jerking of their 
bearded faces betokened what it meant to them at last 
to have discovered the Fool. And the Fool in his new 
frame of mind inwardly rejoiced to see them again, 
and decided straightway to accompany them to a re- 
mote mountain hut in which they had taken shelter for 
several days. 

The brothers had recognised him instantly, though 
his hair and beard had grown somewhat wild. And as 
they walked behind him and answered his questions their 
faces brightened. 

They first informed Quint that their father had died 
more than three weeks before. ‘The old man had gone 
to sleep blissfully in God, in the belief in Jesus, and the 
certainty of resurrection. ‘They had then sold their 
home and chattels to be unhampered and free to follow 
the Fool’s traces. 

Their intention had not remained a secret, and they 
had had to endure much ridicule. For though a num- 
ber of believing Christians in the neighbourhood had 
prophesied wonderful things regarding the appearance 
and disappearance of Emanuel Quint, the overwhelm- 
ing multitude had been incited to hate and contempt. 
But little more and they would have been enraged to 
the point of persecution. — 

A Socialist agitator and editor by the name of 

69 


70 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Kurowski had visited the brothers, and hearing of their 
intention had warned them against carrying it out. 
He maintained that Quint had probably disappeared 
across the border never to return again. But they were 
not to be dissuaded. They trusted their faith in him, 
the sure instinct of their hearts. 3 

Kurowski had spoken at great length, and as Quint 
seemed to be very much interested in his attitude, the 
brothers had to repeat in brief what he had said. 

You will be misled by your belief in that en- 
thusiast. He probably acted in all good faith when 
he delivered his homily in the market-place, but he is 
deceiving’ you — deceiving you as he deceives himself. 
Why? Because he proceeds upon the basis of igno- 
rance. If he were an educated man, which he is not, 
since the dominating class prevents general culture, he 
could achieve tremendous things. ‘There is a new social 
science. And he who builds not on this science but 
upon old silly fairy tales, builds on shifting sand. The 
greatest compassion is of no use. It leads nowhere. 
There is an idol, capital, and until that idol is shat- 
tered good and compassion will be of no avail.” 

One of the brothers drew from the long skirt of his 
very respectable coat a pamphlet the agitator had given 
him, The Communist Manifesto. And Emanuel read 
the * Workingmen of all countries, unite!” But he 
heeded not the summons. He asked the brothers to tell 
him more. 

When the county physician came to issue the death 
certificate for their father, an old half-blind woman 
entered at the same time, and inquired for Quint in 
a way that conveyed the impression he was a quack. 
The physician then said: 

“The way you poor silly ignorant people always 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST T1 


fall a prey to such charlatans! The murderers! Why, 
_they are mixers of poisons. They are bent upon 
nothing but extracting the last penny from your 
pockets and making you sicker. Any blear-eyed 
drunken old woman can get you to sacrifice your 
health if it occurs to her to swindle you with a simple 
promise. Haven’t you the faintest notion that there 
is such a thing as a medical science, medical skill? And 
that medicine has to be studied? You can’t be born 
with it. My good people, if you take my advice, you 
will keep away from all those tricky scoundrels, those 
quacks, those jugglers! They suck like leeches at your 
bodies, souls, and purses. And as for that Quint, the 
trouble with him is he is sick. If he ever shows up here 
again, let me know on the quiet, and we will just pack 
him off to the insane asylum.” 

Quint’s mother had also come to the brothers several 
times to inquire for him. The last time she had got 
very angry and had insisted the brothers were keeping 
Quint’s hiding-place a secret. She had cried, saying 
she would not rest until she found him. She always 
had maintained that Quint wanted to soar too high, 
while it was his duty more than any of his brothers’ 
to keep the family up by work and proper behaviour. 
He ought to try to soothe his father’s anger, which 
was partly due to his suffering. His mother had not 
spared Quint. Irritated and annoyed as she was, she 
had called him a score of harsh names. Anton Scharf, 
always excitable and now thoroughly indignant, began 
to rehearse all the epithets Quint’s mother had used when 
Quint suddenly interrupted him. 

“Whom think ye, thou and thy brother, that I am? ” 
he asked. 


The brothers remained silent and eyed one another. 


72 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


But in the looks of the two emaciated enthusiasts, over- 
excited by work, night vigils, and ardent yearning, 
there was a strangely determined gleam, which alarmed 
Quint. He felt as if he must press back on their lips 
a word still unuttered, a word whose confusing power 
filled him with dread. And yet again his soul hungered 
to hear it. 

A conviction had taken firm hold of the brothers and 
was still further strengthened by what they heard from 
Nathaniel Schwarz. It was a foolish notion, but it kept 
alive in them an unspeakable sense of happiness, a bliss- 
ful madness, which could have developed nowhere else 
than among simple, childlike souls in a district remote 
from the world. ‘They said: 

“¢ We know thou art the anointed of the Lord.” 

To the Fool’s honour be it said he could scarcely mas- 
ter his horror. He rebuked the brothers severely and 
attempted to make clear to them the awful absurdity of 
such a statement. He also bade them keep their opinion 
an absolute secret. 

But the two far from being shaken in their opinion 
were strengthened in it by the ominous force of his 
words and the flash of his eyes. Yet they were in- 
clined to obey him with all their soul, and they told 
him so with an expression of doglike fidelity and hum- 
bleness. 

For a long time they walked in silence in the cold, 
clear air of the mountain ridge with their sorry-looking 
lord and master, until they came into view of a secluded 
little hut with a low-hanging shingle roof standing on 
a slope strewn with boulders. 

# % * % % x x 


This was the hut in which the brothers a few days 
before had sought and found shelter. Such as are 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 73 


not accustomed to look earthly misery straight in the 
face would have been struck with gruesome surprise by 
its interior. After passing through a small entry 
smelling of goat dung you entered a low, black, fairly 
large room, where the light was a dirty brown turning 
the figures in it into phantoms. The vile smell took 
one’s breath away. And when, accustomed to the twi- 
light, you investigated everything the room concealed, 
you found human beings in the lowest extreme of 
wretchedness. 

Even Emanuel and the brothers though inured to the 
direst want, to whom a penny meant more than a pound 
does to others, showed they were strangely moved by 
the sight of this privation. 

An elderly man with bushy hair and beard rose from 
a worm-eaten weaver’s stool and came to meet the 
strangers, with noiseless, shuffling steps. His feet 
were wrapped in rags. The faded cap worn even in- 
doors showed he had once been a soldier. After scruti- 
nising Quint almost with terror in his eyes, he bowed 
over the Fool’s hands, and on raising his head again 
his eyes met the shining eyes of the brothers — shining 
with an expression of rapturous triumph, readily to 
be interpreted: ‘* Behold, here is he whom we sought.” 

Quint noticed that he had been expected. And this 
strange state of expectancy which he found wherever 
he went strengthened him in the foolish supposition 
that the world was in particular need of him, and his 
walking on earth was a divine mission. 

He was led to a bed covered with straw. In the 
cellar-like darkness it was hard to see things, but when 
the straw began to rustle Emanuel discerned an 
emaciated naked human body not wholly hidden be- 

neath the ragged coverings. Then he saw raised 


4 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


toward him, the head of a blonde woman still young 
and eyes fixed upon him in a stare of anguish. And 
without asking who Quint was or why he had come, 
the woman began to make her moan, speaking in a 
loud, heart-rending voice. 

For weeks she had been lying on the straw sick and 
helpless and unable to work. Six months before on a 
stormy autumn night she had given birth to a child, 
now lying next to her on the ground in a wooden tub. 
When Emanuel expressed his compassion in a few heart- 
felt words, the woman pointed to the child with a ges- 
ture of exceeding despair, which showed what was the 
object of her real and latest grief. 

And the Fool bent his white, freckled face over the 
sleeping child in the wooden tub, and the brothers saw 
his eyes fill with tears. For Quint realised instantly 
that that emaciated naked woman on the straw had 
spoken the truth. The poor child, breathing heavily 
and feverishly, was covered all over with a single awful 
repulsive scab. It was difficult to see how it could 
still live. 

The father of the family said nothing. But from 
his manner it was evident that he went about with the 
solemn consciousness that God had selected him for 
peculiarly frightful trials. Had not his left arm been 
crippled by the rheumatism contracted in the campaign 
of 1866 and 1870? And was there not a blonde girl 
of fourteen, large-eyed, with hectic spots on her hollow 
cheeks, sitting on a weaver’s spool back of him? He 
knew his tumbledown hut, avoided by men and good for- 
tune, was a favourite haunt of all sorts of sickness and 
trouble. Every year death had been a visitor, carry- 
ing off to the little church-yard cemetery down in the 
valley his father and his mother and five of his children. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 75 


All this gravity, all this severe naked misery set up 

sweet, secret, hopeful vibrations in Quint, which seemed 
_to rest upon a heavenly instinct that God’s help is closest 
to the profoundest misery —this to be taken not in 
an earthly, but in a deep mystical sense. It was in 
sorrow, in sympathy, and in love that God revealed 
Himself. Amid these uneasy, torturing pulsations He 
seemed to be hidden behind scarcely a single thin veil. 
Often the hovering head of the Redeemer would rise 
up before Quint as if taking form from the vapourous 
phantoms of all the martyrs of all ages, the head with 
the crown of thorns on its brow and drops of the sacred 
blood trickling slowly down over the eyes of the Man 
of Sorrows. 

It now seemed that wherever Quint appeared in the 
midst of grief and care, this secret, hopefully joyous 
state of his soul communicated itself to all, and every 
poor wretch welcomed his coming as a good and his 
going as an evil. The excitement that had taken hold 
of the three occupants of the little hut and the brothers 
Anton and Martin was not of the sort that comes from 
pleasure in mere human goodness and consolation. 
Quint felt the eyes of the man, the eyes of the woman, 
and the eyes of the girl resting upon him with a hun- 
gry, questioning gleam. He saw a strange trembling 
of their hands, as if doubt and faith in strife with each 
other nevertheless felt the approach of a desired miracle. 
Quint saw all this. Quite cool and level-headed in ob- 
serving it he connected it, of course, with the over- 
wrought outcry of the two brothers that had startled 
him only a few minutes before, and he confessed to him- 
self that without his agency simplicity, anxiety, and 
_ misery had here risen to the heights of sinful imagin- 
ings of an incredible nature. 


76 THE FOOL IN CHRIST: 


These poor, ignorant people, he said to himself, in 
their delirium actually take me to be Jesus Christ, the 
Son of God. But instead of instantly doing that which 
he had once before attempted, instead of trying to tear 
up that sickly misbelief by its roots, he let matters take 
their course. Indeed, their delusion reacted upon him. 
It rendered him helpless. It reduced him to the very 
same state of inner and outer trembling which he per- 
ceived among the inmates of the abode of misery to 
which he had come as a guest. 


* * * * * * * * 


The brothers Anton and Martin Scharf, the starved 
veteran, whose name was Schubert, and the fourteen- 
year-old daughter Martha ministered to Quint. They 
came to an understanding with one another by their 
looks, and with an air of special importance went down 
into the cellar and fetched up some provisions, which 
had been bought with the pennies of the brothers. 
Martha had gathered some dry brushwood, which now 
crackled merrily in the stove. She brought in cold 
mountain-spring water in a potsherd and set potatoes 
on to boil—an unusual feast for the family, which 
had to content itself mostly with a soup made of husks. 

There was something still choicer hidden in the cellar 
— wine, one bottle of wine which the brothers had 
bought from a hideous, gypsy-like man, unaware that 
he was smuggling it from Bohemia into Prussia. So 
the one bottle of wine was set on the table. 

Emanuel heeded not all these preparations for a syba- 
ritic feast. He had moved a stool to the sick woman’s 
bedside and sat quietly with bent head speaking to her 
in a low tone. There was not a trace of shame in her 
because of her almost complete nakedness. Want, a 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST TT 


vain struggle against misery year in year out had quite 
_ starved out that luxurious sentiment. Though Emanuel 
Quint knew of families blessed with numerous offspring 
who went about in the house naked to save clothes, or 
because they did not have enough rags to go around 
and had to use them by turns, he was touched by a feel- 
ing as he sat at this woman’s side which made him avoid 
looking at her. 

In his struggle with an inner agitation which he 
thought he had mastered during the last few weeks, 
he often failed to hear what she said. It seemed to 
him as if the woman, whose face was so haggard and 
drawn that her thin lips could not meet over her teeth, 
was seductive, despite her gruesome misery, in the vo- 
luptuous adornment of her loose, reddish, barbaric hair. 
He was bitterly ashamed of his thoughts. But the spot- 
less lustre of her round, slim shoulder, which he could 
not help seeing, the pearly glint of her body through 
the straw, which seemed to mock the poverty all about 
her, kept making him uncertain. He loved the woman. 
He loved her because in his heart he always bore the 
suffering of compassion like an open wound, because 
that hatred which dominates everything among men in 
their struggles with one another had no place in his 
breast, and thus human hatred was replaced by human 
love. 

As in a ship’s hold the goods it carries over the waters 
lie divided from one another in rooms separated by 
walls, and in a storm one load sometimes breaks through 
the walls and falls into the room of another, so it hap- 
pened in Quint’s soul. If with other human beings we 
make a distinction between heavenly and earthly love, 
_ then in the case of the Fool we must say that his earthly 
love secretly broke into the separate chamber of his 


78 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


heavenly love, even though it seemed to him that thereby 
heavenly love were carried all the higher heavenward. 
The poor woman broke into complaints, complaints 
not against man — this was bitter for Emanuel — but 
against God. She told her story. It was a story of 
unremitting want. And the thought passed through 
the poor Fool’s mind, how could she know of any 
other condition, a happy condition, and despair 
of attaining it? When a child she had had to 
suffer the frightful tortures of having a drunkard 
for a mother. Often, even when broken down by 
excessive work, she had seen things that poisoned her 
memory and undermined the strength of her mind. 
Her parents demanded the most beastly, obscene things 
of her, and themselves enacted them in her very pres- 
ence. Finally, to her gratification, her mother stayed 
away for longer and longer periods, begging and 
drinking. Then at least there were several weeks of 
peace at a time, and the walls of the narrow, ruinous 
hut no longer resounded with quarrels and brutal blows. 
In the meantime the father became bedridden. He 
could no longer take his barrel-organ out on the ridge- 
road where tourists passed, and the door was opened 
wider to want than ever. Hunger and sickness became 
constant guests. To attend to her father, to provide 
for herself and her brothers and sisters, all that from 
now on fell upon her shoulders, the shoulders of a girl 
of eleven, until one day after he had gone through 
great suffering she found her father lying cold on his 
rotting straw couch in the light of the wintry sun. 
Silenced the curses with which the old man had al- 
ways unburthened his soul, the curses that had goaded 
the child on to ceaseless work and kept her bound in 
hell. But her mother turned up. During the night, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 79 


in the madness of a drunken fit, she appeared at the hut 
demanding money and admission. 

In tremours of terror the child opened the door to 
her. 

The drunken woman did not recognise death upon 
the face of her husband. In her frenzy she went to the 
bed, mocked the dead man, and hurled curses at him. 
Her fury mounting, she finally grasped the corpse and 
dishonoured its face with blows. At last she fell upon 
the bed next to her dead husband, red, bloated, reeking 
with whiskey, and lay there snoring until late in the 
morning. 

% x = % # * * 

The woman grew more and more eager as she went 
on with her story. She caught her breath painfully 
and tossed from side to side making the straw crackle 
at short regular intervals. 

Now came her sufferings as a grown girl and a 
woman. ‘Then the pangs of childbirth, of the last 
childbirth scarcely six months before, from which, lying 
neglected for weeks, she had not yet arisen. And again 
and again she asked, “ Why?” Why all those sor- 
rows heaped upon her? There is a good God in heaven, 
we are told, she said. 

Is what her husband never wearied of repeating true, 
she asked, that the Saviour would once again appear 
on earth and for a thousand years spread sheer joy and 
happiness? She did not believe so. She had believed 
too often and had always been deceived. It seemed to 
her as if that talk of having to believe and becoming 
better were merely a lie. Schubert, her husband, 
stepped to the bedside, and in a few words reproached 
her with the sin of doubting. 

How gladly would Quint have said to the poor woman 


80 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


diseased with an issue of blood, “ Arise, and walk.” Or 
merely, “ Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light.” But the conviction had long 
since ceased to prevail within him. Even before his 
first fool’s sermon in the market-place of Reichenbach 
the Christ of the sermon on the mount had hovered be- 
fore him, and “ ‘Take up your cross!” had been the so- 
lution for him. To be sure he did not understand that 
solution then, as he came to understand it later. 

How could Quint preach the “ Take up your cross ” 
to that woman groaning under the rod of anguish, 
whose hungry eyes contradicting her words suppli- 
cated for all the satisfactions of the heavenly paradise? 
How could he say to that poor creature what he had 
always cried to himself, “ Deny thyself!” or “ Suffer- 
ing is thy reward! Hope for no other! He who seeks 
rewards is he who always produces evil in the world. 
He is the wolf. Be not the wolf, the wicked one, in the 
fold. Be the lamb! Be God’s lamb! Be the patient 
sheep under the hands of the shearer and the butcher.” 
No, all that he reserved for himself. As for the woman, 
he could not but fan her hopes in a just compensation 
in the life hereafter. 

During the meal the Fool remained silent buried in 
his own thoughts. The woman, he reflected, will never 
see the earthly paradise of the future. None of us 
shall. We have to give ourselves up without hope of 
a share in it, as examples, as self-sacrificing masons of 
a church that we ourselves shall never enter. It is not 
the thirst to sacrifice myself for God which is impelling 
me. But with God and in God for men, according to 
Christ’s example, for men! Man, the Son of man, it 
is to Him alone that I offer up my earthly strength, in 
love, without reserve. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 81 


But the brothers Anton and Martin and the weaver 
_ Schubert suspected nothing of his reflections. Those 
poor men in their contracted sphere lived their inner 
lives wholly in their firm delusion, their firm credulity, 
which, like every delusion, it is difficult for the sober- 
minded to comprehend. 

From time to time there comes over the old world, in 
conjunction with a new or a revived belief, a feeling of 
rejuvenescence. And just at that time, about 1890, 
a new faith and a spring feeling hovered in the air of 
Germany. It was an intoxication the causes of which 
were many. ‘The wave penetrated to the remotest cor- 
ners of the land, and, as it were, caused the blood of 
the people to put forth blossoms. It reached the broth- 
ers, causing them to depart imperceptibly farther and 
farther from the ground of sober reality. 

The monstrous conception that they should be hon- 
oured first in the community of God at his second ad- 
vent on earth filled their waking hours as well as their 
sleeping dreams. It was an intoxication hard to mas- 
ter. So, while they ate and drank they could no longer 
keep their happiness within bounds, and it broke forth, 
despite Quint’s presence, in self-righteousness and pride. 

They spoke in hoarse voices lowered out of respect to 
Quint. And they spoke not of the salvation of all as 
the important thing, but the damnation of the wicked 
and the last judgment. Not pardon, but revenge. 
Not suffering for Jesus’ sake, but the reward of suffer- 
ing. In horror Quint admitted to himself how far 
these, once his truest disciples, had departed from the 
kingdom of God, such as he yearned for. 

The thing that occupied them was the approach of the 
_ millennium, which was to change the earth into para- 
dise. And it was noticeable that they no longer reck- 


82 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


oned upon fresh sufferings before the coming of the 
millennium. To be sure the Revelation of St. John 
with all its terrors haunted them, but in their opinion 
they were under the Saviour’s direct protection. They 
pictured to themselves how on judgment day the Son of 
man coming down in glory sat upon the Father’s right 
hand, and divided his sheep from the goats. And they 
poured out the vials of their wrath upon all the godless 
powers of the day, against whose account they wrote 
the vast sum of mankind’s woe on earth. 

They thought of Lazarus and the rich man — how 
Lazarus was carried by the angels into the bosom of 
Abraham, while the rich man suffered torments and 
thirsted in a Turkish-bath hell. It contented them that 
the rich man thirsted. Growing excited over the wine 
and food they began to cast not a few of their fellow- 
creatures into the eternal flames of hell to be compan- 
ions of Dives —the village miller, the parson, the fus- 
tian dealer, for whom they had sweated at their looms, 
and many another beloved neighbour. 

Quint thought of rebuking the brothers severely. 
But he reconsidered, and remembered how broad the gulf 
between them had grown. He restrained himself. 
These men after all, he reflected, though grown up, were 
in a sense only children who, if they were to become 
capable of understanding truth, had to be led upward 
to truth step by step. Moreover, Quint stood in some 
awe of his own new truth. He was afraid. He had 
not yet the full courage to admit it openly. 

And suddenly, he scarcely knew how or why, the Fool 
began to speak of the “ mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven,”’ involuntarily using an expression of the Savy- 
iour’s. ‘Though he was careful to respect his disciples’ 
ardour, he made them uncertain of their opinions and 


\ 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 83 


expectations of the kingdom to come, so that they sat 
there dumbfounded when he arose and went to rest in 
the empty room in the loft. 


% * * * * * * * 


Emanuel had slept only a short time when he awoke 
and stepped into the moonlight shining through the at- 
tic window, and with difficulty tried to decipher pas- 
sages in his little Bible. Then he paced up and down 
slowly, but restlessly, the full length of the attic, pon- 
dering upon the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. 
Suddenly a shriek sounded in the room below, and imme- 
diately after Anton Scharf, who had slept in the vesti- 
bule, entered and besought him earnestly to come down. 

When Quint entered the room, the baby was scream- 
ing in the tub and the woman on the straw couch was 
weeping hysterically. She wrung her hands and held 
them up to Emanuel and begged him for help. Old 
Schubert was sitting on his weaver’s stool holding tight 
in his arms a something that was writhing convulsively. 
Martin Scharf, at a loss what to do, was standing along- 
side holding the smoking stump of a candle in his hand. 

** She is in one of her fits again,’ said the older 
brother. 

Quint now perceived it was Martha who was in her 
father’s arms. He took the candle from Martin’s hand, 
and as soon as the light approached her frightfully dis- 
torted face, she hissed and spat like a cat. But she did 
not come to her senses, and all were suddenly startled 
by a beastly howl resembling a dog’s, which burst from 
her narrow, bared breast. Then in a mad whirl of 
words she began to curse God, Jesus Christ, and all the 
angels. 

Quint felt what was expected of him. Even without 


84 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


that incentive his whole being was profoundly stirred 
to give help. Quite instinctively he did what is usually 
done to rouse a person from heavy sleep. He asked 
for fresh water from the spring, and then, raising his 
voice, spoke to Martha very sharply. 

The attack had probably come to an end of itself. 
But when the girl’s body relaxed peacefully, this was 
new proof to the men, ready of faith, of the Fool’s won- 
der-working powers. And after Quint had left the 
room to be by himself in the chilly clear moonlight of 
the open air, and the girl was slumbering quietly at her 
mother’s side, the men talked with one another until 
long after dawn, completely penetrated by the sup- 
posed miracle. 

Martha did not awaken until late in the afternoon. 
What she related was of a nature to strengthen the de- 
lusions of the little circle. She wore an air of beatific 
solemnity. When asked why, she declared that in a 
dream she had seen Jesus Christ surrounded by a heay- 
enly halo with all the marks of his wounds. 


“OQ Jesus, my sweet light, 
Now is the night departed, 
Now is Thy saving grace 
To me again imparted.” 


From that time on, whatever the housework she was 


doing, the girl kept singing this and similar verses to 
herself. 


CHAPTER V 


Tue world has often had the experience that a false 
belief will spread over wide areas like a conflagration, 
or a blight, or an epidemic. Thus, in that remote dis- 
trict, the rumour got abroad that a man had appeared 
who, if he was not Christ Himself, was at least an apos- 
tle. If not an apostle, then a saint. If not a saint, 
then a wonder-worker. And two days later in the 
morning Emanuel found the hut besieged by a throng 
of the infirm and the disabled. If it is difficult to be- 
lieve this, remember what the lay physician and the wise 
old woman with her faith cures mean to the common 
people. 

By chance it was the first day of Whitsuntide that 
looked down upon the lame, blind, coughing, feverish, 
groaning multitude. ‘There were men and women and 
children, old people and middle-aged people. The sun 
shone warm upon the bare, stony field. Martha, who 
was the first to espy the strange influx, bade them wait. 
By nature not impatient, they sat about on the scattered 
blocks of granite, a well-behaved crowd, awaiting the 
wonder-working healer. 

Very close by was one of those paths which lure the 
dwellers of the valleys, plains, towns, and villages up 
into the glory of the mountains. And to-day, being 
Whitsunday, all those paths were alive with gay throngs 
jocund with the spring. Some of them on the near- 
est path stood still to scrutinise the curious camp. 
After a while they saw a man step from the little hut, 

85 


86 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


blown lopsided by the wind, and thereupon a general 
movement among the waiting multitude. 


* * * * aK * a * 


It was with outward calm and inward agitation that 
Emanuel Quint had observed the crowd of supplicants 
through the window. Finally he sent out the weaver 
Schubert to tell them that Quint was only a poor man 
like themselves, and of all things the least likely to be 
a wonder-worker. And when the people surrounded 
the weaver, whom they knew, he did as he had been bid- 
den, but ‘not in so convincing a way as to shake their 
faith. On the contrary, they ran in thick swarms to 
Quint’s window. Women making a great outcry raised 
their infants in front of the panes, men displayed their 
crippled limbs, and many pointed simultaneously to 
the eyes of blind persons, and wildly begged that they 
be healed. 

Thereupon the Fool came to a firm decision. He 
stepped out courageously into the urgent assemblage. 
Straightway they covered with kisses the folds of his 
threadbare coat and his hands and naked feet. ‘The on- 
lookers saw how the tall grotesque man for a time rode 
helpless as upon a wave of misery. At length Anton 
and Martin Scharf succeeded in clearing a space be- 
tween their idol and the senseless throng. ‘There was 
nothing for Quint to do but to address the assemblage. 

Whatever the content of his sermon was, a clear state- 
ment of it has never been given by any one of those who 
heard it. Under the inspiration of the moment the 
Fool probably mixed together all sorts of contradictory 
things, as they rushed to his lips from his previous re- 
flections and his recollections of the Bible. 

** What came ye out for to see? ” is the way he began. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 87 


“A physician? Iam a sick man, not a physician. A 
man clothed in soft raiment? In better raiment than 
clothes your crooked limbs? Verily, I am as poorly 
clothed as you. Behold, they that wear soft clothing 
dwell peacefully in kings’ houses. What came ye out 
for to see? A prophet who curses the sins of the 
world? I am not come to curse. What came ye out 
for to see? One more than you, a master in art, a mas- 
ter in writing? Know I am as unlearned and less than 
you! I cannot heal the sick or raise the dead except 
they be sick in the spirit and dead in the spirit. If 
ye would be healed in the spirit and supplicate therefor, 
mayhap ye will be helped. I was baptised, baptised 
with water, but I cannot baptise another with water. I 
baptise with the spirit.” Looking at the brothers and 
Schubert the weaver, he continued: ** The Son of man 
came not into the world to destroy the souls of men. 
Nor came He into the world to remove the yoke from one 
and place it upon another, to shift the burden from the 
back of the good man to the back of the bad man. But 
He Himself will take all burdens upon Himself. He 
that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus Christ you 
rightly call the Son of God. But God is spirit. Jesus 
was born of the spirit. Far be it from you and from 
me to assume that God is a body and that an earthly 
body brought forth the Son. That which is born of the 
spirit is spirit. Step into the birth of the spirit, then 
shall you be in spiritual regeneration. ‘The Father is 
spirit, the Son is spirit, and I, too, am born again of the 
spirit. I hesitate not to proclaim unto you, He that is 
born again of the spirit, he is the Son of God. Thus, 
I am the Son of God. And you, too, each of you, can 
_ become the same as I am through the spiritual regenera- 
tion. Each and all of you can become God’s children.” 


88 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Inside the hut the sick woman and Martha looked 
through the open window and listened to the sermon 
of the blind leader of the blind, understanding as little 
of it as any of the devout listeners outside. Deeply 
moved and excited by the sonorous tones of Emanuel’s 
loud, fervent voice they paid small heed to his words. 
Still less did they understand their connection. All, 
even the brothers Anton and Martin, merely found they 
were reminded of what they knew of the Bible, and the 
brothers lived only in their delusion. And they found 
their delusion confirmed in an unheard-of way by Eman- 
uel’s dangerous words, “I am the Son of God.” They 
were unable to take into consideration the sense in which 
he had meant he was the Son of God. 

When Quint finished his sermon, the crowd stormed 
up to him to invoke his help, jostling one another 
out of the way. The blind stumbled. Babies cried, 
while their mothers wrangled and abused one another 
in foul language. They waved stumps of arms, dis- 
torted hands, walking sticks, and crutches right under 
the Fool’s eyes. Now began an awful scrimmage. The 
most horrible thing to see was the display of disgusting 
infirmities. The Fool was frightened. What were 
words here? 

After trying a time in vain to bring order into the 
unbridled mob, he withdrew into the hut. But here he 
was received by the wife of his host in a way which ren- 
dered him even more helpless than the onslaught of the 
crowd. 'The woman was kneeling in the middle of the 
room. She raised her arms and prayed. And mur- 
muring prayers she looked at him with credulous eyes 
shining with a light of madness. Martha stood at the 
stove, her lips trembling, her hands folded in evident 
emotion. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 89 


The Fool felt a dull confusion rising in him, joined 
to a temptation more difficult to resist than any that 
had ever before assailed him. The madness about him 
was waxing. It was like a mighty storm issuing from 
the bowels of the earth, irresistible in its might. A ter- 
rible power was growing up around him, of which he 
knew not whether he himself or somebody else had un- 
chained it, a power of faith, which mounted and carried 
him away as a mountain torrent rises and carries off 
bits of twigs. Well, you will say, he was a fool, and 
took himself without much hesitation for that which the 
people in their folly took him to be. That is, he took 
himself to be, if not the Son of God, at least a man 
of supernatural powers able to work miracles. 'To be 
sure, he clapped his hand to his brow, and secretly asked 
himself if after all he was not more than he knew. 
But then he courageously cast from his mind every- 
thing that would persuade him to an overweening opin- 
ion of himself. 

And so he turned in pain, if not in disgust, from the 
almost naked body at his feet and the enraptured looks 
which prayed to him impiously. He hastened out 
through the back door, and fled across the mountain 
pastures like a fugitive. The clamorous multitude and 
the inmates of the little hut sought but could not find 
him. He had suddenly disappeared. 


* *% * * * * *% * 


Two young men, tourists, had caught sight of Eman- 
uel running away. Since everything they had seen and 
heard impressed them as a tremendous adventure, they 
followed, and succeeded in overtaking him after he had 
gone a long distance. They gave him a friendly bow 
and spoke to him. 


90 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


They were brothers by the name of Hassenpflug, 
from Miinster, “ Bohemians” in the early twenties, 
who lived chiefly on borrowed money and edited a mag- 
azine in Berlin which nobody read. In brief, they were 
enthusiasts, poets, and Socialists. They saw a good 
catch in Quint. 

The vast number of questions with which they plied 
him he allowed at first to go unanswered, merely turning 
large, searching eyes upon them. In fact it would not 
have been easy for him to answer most of their queries. 
For example, what is a Socialist? He did not know 
whether he was a Socialist. 

Nor had he heard of anarchism, or Russian nihilism, 
or a book by Egidy, Ernste Gedanken. At times his 
face flushed a dark red from shame at his ignorance. 

But after the three had walked along together in the 
rare air of the high ridge, a sort of intimacy sprang 
up between them. Speaking with sectarian zeal Quint’s 
companions gradually unfolded a world entirely new to 
him, in which he showed a lively curiosity, grasping 
the unfamiliar ideas with a hungry mind and taking 
pains to examine them keenly. 

The manners of the brothers were not pleasant to him. 
The older one took delight in a sort of gay mockery 
with which he usually accompanied the statements of 
the younger brother. When the younger brother spoke 
of freedom, the right to happiness, a universally har- 
monious care-free existence on earth, the future state 
of perfection into which man would develop, Quint had 
the painful impression that the other brother was com- 
pletely dominated by scepticism. He seemed to doubt 
everything. 

But the platform upon which the three stood united 
was their youth, the love of an unknown, real world, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 91 


still to be conquered, a world in which they had been 
placed and which would gradually unfold its marvels to 
' them as they slowly ripened into manhood. 

It is strange how an intelligent youth of the age of 
the brothers deems himself extra-and-super-natural, 
though every impulse has its roots in things earthly. 
They themselves were unaware how glorious the world 
seemed to them, how inconceivably precious. Had any- 
one told them so, they would have denied it. The Has- 
senpflug brothers surely did not fail to quote Schopen- 
hauer, or deal out some of Marx’s and Engels’s criticism 
upon the rotten state of society, or use Bellamy to point 
to the future Socialist state, to paradisiacal conditions 
to be striven for. They never dreamed that it would 
have been impossible for them to conceive of greater 
happiness than the youth in which they lived. 

Emanuel Quint, though he was older than the broth- 
ers and had suffered very differently from them, having 
had to bear poverty and deprivation, nevertheless, like 
them, was stirred by the foaming intoxication of youth. 
And if we take into consideration the whole gravity of 
his remarkable destiny, the brief road of his life gone 
sadly amiss, we must yet say it was the wealth of young, 
gushing love which filled him with a hot, insatiable 
craving to pour out that love, even though his blood 
flowed away. with it. 

Karl Hassenpflug, the younger brother, remarked 
how seldom he could extract even a scant reply from this 
strangely solemn Fool, and began to answer his own 
questions. Then Quint by degrees learned something 
like this: 

In almost all countries of the globe the firm conviction 
has spread that the present state of society is unjust, 
a state in which the smaller part of mankind enjoys 


92 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


comfort, while the far greater part suffers want, and 
that this social order was doomed to immediate over- 
throw. Karl himself harboured not the least doubt 
that the great social revolution was to take place within 
a very short time, which could be counted perhaps by 
months. It was the third estate, the working-class, the 
so-called proletarians, who would bring about the revo- 
lution. A great party was already formed and grow- 
ing in nearly every country. This party’s motto was: 
““ Freedom, equality, brotherhood of man.” As soon 
as it attained to power the first thing it would do would 
be to shatter an idol, the Moloch capital. Each would 
then enjoy the fruits of his honest toil, instead of 
yielding up the lion’s share to the thieving rich. 

That great event of liberation would be the result of 
a natural social process, a sort of decay of modern so- 
ciety. Modern society would rot and fall like over- 
ripe fruit. But there were people who would not wait 
for that natural process to take place. These worked 
to bring about liberation sooner, using violent means, 
guns and dynamite. Among them, said Karl Hassen- 
pflug, the rage of the oppressed took on dreadful forms. 
Their motto was: ‘* War to the knife! No mercy to 
the beast of our system!”’ And he read to Quint an an- 
archistic appeal fairly reeking with the bloody breath 
of revenge. 

Using the execution of an anarchist on the Place de 
la Roquette in Paris as a provocative example, the ap- 
peal called the representatives of the legal powers a 
gang of curs, scoundrels, ruffians, murderers. Com- 
pared with these outbursts the bitter denunciations of 
the Scharf brothers seemed to the Fool to be the gentle 
whisperings of goodness. He shuddered inwardly. 
And turning quietly to the speaker he said; 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 93 


** As surely as I am a poor man among the poor they 
are far from the kingdom of heaven.” | 
The brothers were touched as by something infinitely 

naive. 

From now on they tried to extract his secret con- 
ceits from the original vagrant. They had been pro- 
digiously astonished to come upon such a man and such 
an event while off on a Whitsunday excursion. The 
thing seemed to be a part of the New Testament. 
They well knew, as the whole circle of the young intel- 
lectuals of that time knew, that the people are the native 
soil for everything primitively young and fresh. And 
here in a district strange to them, remote from the great 
roads of commerce, they everywhere met with an intact, 
virgin folk-spirit. They were of those to whom the 
uniform culture of Europe was a levelling down. So, 
eagerly, in a thirst for knowledge, they tried on all 
sides to force their way into the walled province of the 
lower classes, as if in it there must be sources of reve- 
lation sealed up in the province of the educated. 

They now turned the conversation in another direc- 
tion. They thought that this man having been so be- 
sieged by the sick must be possessed of a mania for per- 
forming wonders or by a hypochondriac belief in some 
universal remedy, which he may have inherited. But 
his father was not a shepherd-healer, and he had not in- 
herited a book of recipes. No, it was the leaves of the 
Bible that they heard rustling in his few simple words. 
And his talk had not the faintest ring of therapeutic 
conceit, 

He said: 

“T have nothing to do with the ills of the body. 
I make not whole the body of him that is sick. I cannot 
_ bring back to life the body of him that is dead. I am 


94 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


only a physician to the soul, which never dies. I see 
men suffering want. I see they would overcome want. 
I know the hope by which they live, the hope of finally 
conquering want. I myself am in want. I know how 
bitter it is to do without my daily bread and suffer hun- 
ger. But man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 
You said,” he continued, “ that the workingmen all over 
the world are striving for a state of things in which 
each shall enjoy the fruit of his own work. But I say, 
Enjoy now! Each moment enjoy the living word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. When the time 
comes that the workingmen’s paradise, as you say, will 
blossom on earth, I shall be far from it in the kingdom 
of heaven.” 

When the brothers asked the Fool what and where the 
word was, the soul’s true food, he drew forth his little 
Testament, and read to them from the Gospel of St. 
John: * In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God.” Christian 
Hassenpflug then asked him how about the announce- 
ment of the kingdom of heaven on earth, wherein the 
Bible to an extent agreed with the upward-striving 
forces of the present. Emanuel was silent at first. 
Then he said: 

“It may be, except ye be born again, ye cannot see 
the kingdom of God.” 

Thus he cited St. John ii: 3 in a way that gave him 
a mystically voluptuous satisfaction — that taking up 
of the food of the spirit, that letting the soul draw in 
sustenance through holy words which proceed out of 
the mouth of the Saviour. 


* * * * * * * * 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 95 


Feeling somewhat tired, the three sat down near the 
so-called Speidlerbaude. A great St. Bernard dog 
dashed out from the inn and came bounding over the 
meadow, barking furiously. But they paid no atten- 
tion to him, and Emanuel explained that the kingdom 
of God is a mystery. ‘In truth,” he said, winding up 
with a quotation from St. Matthew, “ there is nothing 
covered, that shall not be revealed. Everything in its 
time will be revealed, and nothing is so hidden that 
some day it shall not be known. And even if there be 
cause to hide the light under a bushel for a little season, 
it is not done for all eternity.” 

Quint readily consented to be the guest of the broth- 
ers at the inn. While they walked toward it the dog 
kept barking almost incessantly. He would stop only 
to come closer to them and growl... This drew a mass of 
staring people to the vestibule and doorway, and pretty 
soon the dog, always with his eye on Emanuel, received 
warm encouragement from the rapidly increasing crowd 
of tourists in front of the inn. 

Quint’s sermon to the halt and the blind had already 
been advertised by some good folk in rough mountain- 
climber’s costume. And since the object of a walking 
tour is pleasure, everything falling within the tourist’s 
vision subserves that object. And we must not forget 
that true, righteous indignation is a genuine Sunday 
amusement of your pleasure-seeking butcher and baker. 

So when the news of the lay sermon on the mountain 
meadow, as yet a bit of harmless mischief, had spread in 
the dining-room of the inn crowded with tourists, it pro- 
duced a storm of laughter, but also profound indigna- 
tion. In such cases men’s hearts are wont to unite. 
While the butcher, the baker, the sausage-maker, and 
haberdasher sits over his third glass of beer and his wife 


96 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


over her coffee, he is highly conscious of his moral du- 
ties as a citizen, especially when off on a trip. Who 
does not deem it right that he should be? 

The winged word that rose above the dog’s barking 
and reached the Fool’s ears was “ cabbage apostle.” 
Your butcher and baker from Breslau as well as from 
Dresden had of course heard a good deal of those crazy 
vegetarians who make the eating of vegetables a life 
principle. It was even a more frequent sight in Dres- 
den than elsewhere to see persons in hair shirts with a 
rope about their waists and their hair reaching to their 
shoulders walking through the streets barefooted. 

Quint and the brothers behaved as if unaware that 
the shouts and laughter applied to them. But they 
could no longer maintain their front when a gigantic 
tourist with an alpen-stock, a knapsack, and short top- 
boots blocked their way and laughed saucily in their 
faces. 

“No turnips here,” said the cattle-dealer. 

That made the brothers extremely angry. They let 
loose a stream of violent words upon the purplish, 
bloated, perspiring mountain-climber. But he, instead 
of replying, took hold of Emanuel’s coat over his chest 
and good-humouredly shook him to and fro, trolling 
jovially : : 

“Du bist verrtickt, mein Kind.” 

The St. Bernard took this as a signal to go for the 
poor vagrant’s calf, at which the waitress hit the dog 
on his snout. 

Perhaps the cattle-dealer regretted his treatment of 
the Fool. At all events he fell into a rage, and his wife 
had to pacify him. If she had not, he might have exe- 
cuted his bellowed threat of sticking the three harmless 
youngsters, as he called them, on the inn chimney. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 97 


For all that the brothers had dragged Emanuel with 
them to the very threshold. Here they met with the 
Bohemian host. He stood in the doorway and refused 
to admit them. He said nothing, or, rather, he tran- 
quilly grunted a few unintelligible words, the meaning 
of which was that they should be off with them and that 
without delay. 

Such hardihood naturally made the brothers still an- 
grier. They, Kandidaten der Philosophie, who had 
worn the band of black, red, and gold! Never as long 
as they lived had the host of a tavern forbidden them 
entrance. But their indignation was of little avail. 
Amid the howls of laughter of the whole mob of tour- 
ists they had to betake themselves away. 

At the outer edge of the crowd was an hostler. As 
the trio passed by he shouted to the inn-keeper, who 
wore a flattered smile because of the applause of his 
guests, that Quint was the man of whom he had often 
spoken, the man who had been knocking about on the 
mountain for weeks. Nobody knew what his designs 
were. The police had better be set upon him. 

The three feeling greatly vexed had been walking 
along together for about a quarter of an hour when 
Quint left the path and struck into the woods through 
the low mountain pines. He told the brothers to follow 
him. And suddenly a stretch of meadow-land opened 
up among the spruce and dwarf pines. Here the 
shepherd who had been friendly to Quint. was pasturing 
his flock of goats and cows. To the brothers he 
looked like a wild man of the woods. But they were 
hungry, and when they saw by a gesture of his and a 
gesture in response from Quint that the two knew 
each other, they immediately proposed sending the 
shepherd back to the inn for something to eat. The 


98 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


matter was promptly arranged. Quint gave the 
shepherd the money the brothers handed him and got 
him finally to understand where he was to deliver his 
purchases. 

Emanuel now led his new acquaintances along track- 
less ways until they reached the dwelling hidden among 
rocks and dwarf pine that for weeks had been his 
shelter against wind and rain. At the gurgling rill 
nearby Quint in stoic calm washed the wound from the 
St. Bernard’s bite. And now he became talkative, al- 
most gaily outspoken, as one who feels he is host in his 
own home. | 

Speaking with a slight tinge of his dialect and not 
without oratorical grace and ease, he said in effect: 

** Here is where I dwelt several weeks in almost com- 
plete seclusion and took counsel with myself concern- 
ing all sorts of grave things. This hut, which is 
scarcely a hut, was at any rate a hiding-place for me. 
But since the kingdom of God, as I said, is still a mys- 
tery, though so many men call themselves Christians, 
why should a believer, a minister of the word, complain 
if he, too, must conceal himself from people? 

“I well observe that you are learned and I am not 
learned.” He drew forth his little Bible from one of 
the long skirts of his sadly worn coat. “I have 
merely read and re-read this one holy Book. But I 
believe God would have been with me even had I not 
known this Book.” He kissed the Bible, and con- 
tinued, “God is so large in my heart that it is an 
impossible thought for me to think that he is bound 
to some book or other. <A book in itself is wonderful, 
especially for those who cannot read. I believe the 
fear of the Bible may come from the times when it 
must still have seemed inconceivable to men to see books 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 99 


speak, to see them, in a certain sense, live. And all 
the more so this book which I have in my hand. 

‘But God lives only in me, not in the Bible. If I 
hide the Bible here under the stones and let it lie there, 
and no man who can read and in whom it can awaken 
to life ever finds it, it remains dead. It is always 
dead. We alone are alive. The Bible without me is 
dead as a stone. JI, on the other hand, without the 
Bible, if God wills it, am a vessel of His grace, com- 
pletely filled with the Holy Ghost.” 

Emanuel pointed to his red-lashed eyes. 

** With these eyes that look outward and inward [I 
shall either see God Himself, or never see Him.” He 
pointed to the sun in the pale sky. ‘* Whosoever sees 
not the sun looks first in a book. For such an one 
God hath no tongue to speak. The supreme instru- 
ment of God’s revelation is man, not a book, no mat- 
ter what sort of a book it may be. But man, as 
an instrument of the revelation, created another means 
for human-divine revelation, the Bible. The Bible,” 
said Quint, “is nothing but a letter by which men who 
are remote from one another—as a matter of fact, 
all of us are remote each from the other in time and 
space — tell of their life and sufferings and that which 
God wrought in them. God hallows men, men hallow 
the Bible, and man through the Bible can hallow man. 
Thus was I hallowed by Jesus through the Bible.” 

An expression of profound gladness appeared on 
the Fool’s face. 

** We must be satisfied with the pure, quiet knowl- 
edge of this. It is enough if I feel that no one — 
nothing! — not even a Bible! stands between me and 
God. But at my side stands my brother, the Son of 


100 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


man, Jesus who died from love of his brethren for God’s 
sake. 

“Such things cannot be expressed to those who, 
awaiting the relief of their sufferings, work for the 
satisfaction of their desires. Least of all to those who 
see a God in human form instead of the Holy Ghost. 
They live in hopes! I live in certainty! It is true, 
when I look again upon the misery of men from which 
I fled, the old heartache, the old horror, the old 
despair renew their hold on me, and I feel ashamed of 
my happiness. 

** Such moments,”? Quint continued, ** sometimes seize 
me so strongly that I should like to make an end of 
myself this way or that. Once I hear a call, ‘ Save 
, your heavenly things from the world! Leave the 
world and flee still farther into God!’ Another time, 
though I know why Christ died for us, I am driven 
to sacrifice myself like Him upon the cross for man- 
kind’s sake. I cannot succeed in not loving men, even 
when their conduct is gross. There is a great help- 
lessness in all of them. When I see men senselessly 
raging against themselves I feel a compassion rising 
within me, a compassion so painful that it amounts to 
torture. ‘They are blind. They know not what they 
do.” 

While speaking Emanuel paced up and down on the 
narrow, hard-trodden path in front of his shelter, 
taking long strides. The brothers, each seated on 
a large square block of granite, listened gravely with- 
out interrupting. By their looks they told each other 
that of all the remarkable things that had happened to 
them in their lives this was the most remarkable, this 
unexpected adventure on an innocent Whitsunday ex- 
cursion. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 101 


Each of them carried a memorandum book in his 

pocket to jot down all sorts of observations and con- 
~ ceits for use in later literary works — they intended to 
produce immortal literary works. So their attitude 
to Quint was as to an object under observation, an in- 
teresting bit of “ copy,” of help to them in perfecting 
their knowledge of the German folk-soul. | 

They came to an understanding with each other by 
their glances and put this question to him, What was 
his actual aim in life, his real intentions, what did he 
mean. to do in the future, how and for what did he 
contemplate working, what were his hopes? 

“Jesus!” Quint gave instead of an answer after 
a few moments’ pause. “ Jesus, Jesus! I want noth- 
ing, only to live like Jesus.” 

Quint said he loved men, but he had always felt alien 
and alone among them. His being did not emerge 
from “the earnest expectation of the creature” until 
he learned of Jesus, the Son of man. From that time 
on he still felt alien, like Jesus, only on earth, but also 
like Jesus at home on earth. 

Jesus had become the mediator for him and remained 
the mediator, not only between him and God, but also 
between him and men, between him and the earth — 
“all of nature,” he added expressly. There are in- 
numerable ways leading to God. But he, Quint, was 
a man, and it was natural to him and by no means 
a sin before God or against God to love God in man. 
“IT am a man,” he said again, “and the fate allotted 
me on earth can be nothing but a human appearance of 
God. No one has ever given so pure an example of 
God’s way on earth as Jesus Christ. So the life of 
Jesus, the imitation of Christ, is my goal! Unity in 
spirit with Jesus is my true life. 


102 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 
So said the Saviour. And that is the word by which 
I will act, and none other. I will seek the least of 
my brethren and do unto him as if he were Jesus Christ 
— Jesus the Saviour needing help, in earthly distress. 
To accomplish anything else in this world will be far 
from me. I will kiss the wounds of the Saviour, the 
marks of the nails. I will wash his wounds as best lies 
in my power. I will assuage his pain. And the wounds 
of any man whosoever shall be unto me the wounds of 
Jesus.” 


% * * *% * * * # 


It was not until late in the afternoon, long after 
they had finished the meal the shepherd had brought 
them, that the Hassenpflug brothers left Emanuel. 
They climbed up trails the Fool showed them to a 
lively mountain hospice built on a crag between two 
sheer descents and rising into a defiant tower of granite 
blocks. When Emanuel disappeared from view, they 
rubbed their eyes as if they had each dreamed the same 
dream and had just awakened in the full daylight. 
As they continued climbing they congratulated each 
other upon again living at the end of the nineteenth 
century, not about nineteen hundred years earlier. 
With that the intermezzo of their merry mountain tour 
seemed to be concluded. 

On again reaching the ridge of the mountain they 
made for the castle-like shelter along with a troop of 
tourists, all in high spirits. Like the rest of the ex- 
cursionists they did not fail to enjoy the wide prospect 
or turn their field-glasses upon important points on 
both the Prussian and the Bohemian sides. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 103 


As for Quint he lay down on his couch of moss in his 
_ little hut, and mused upon the recent events. He had 
fled because something, he knew not what, seemed to 
threaten the freedom of his resolve, because dark 
shapes, without heed for his newly won faith, his new 
knowledge, tried to draw him into a strong current 
which might sweep away everything, carry it off, who 
knows where, into the abyss of falsehood, to eternal 
death. 

“1 will remain alone,” thought Quint —his meet- 
ing with the Hassenpflug brothers had brought him to 
this thought again!—‘“ Alone I shall lead no one 
astray, and no one will lead me astray! I shall not 
be a vexation to the world, and the world will not 
vex me. With all my thoughts I will live in quiet im- 
mersion in the Saviour, like John the Disciple, whom 
Christ loved. 

“Verily I am not an Egyptian sorcerer,” he con- 
tinued to commune with himself. “I never pretended 
in any way to be one of those who shew signs and 
wonders. I know what Jesus said in Mark viii: 12; 
*Verily there shall no sign be given to this genera- 
tion.’ ” 

But there was something in Emanuel Quint that 
always undermined the determination to live for him- 
self without regard for others. It was his heart, 
his love for his fellow-beings. His love kept alive 
within him like an open wound a painful compassion, 
so that he necessarily felt the “ Be locked in close em- 
brace, ye millions!” in the rejoicing of his soul and in 
the bitter anguish of his own sufferings. 

# # s * # % # * 


Quint had been pondering after this fashion about 
half an hour or more and lay on the moss couch with 


104 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


closed eyes between waking and sleeping, when he felt 
the breath of a living creature upon him. He opened 
his eyes and started in alarm. Bending over him was 
a man with a face repulsively hideous, a face the like 
of which Quint had never before seen. 

Quint sprang to his feet. The hideous man quietly 
removed a pack from his shoulders and placed it in 
the hut, all without a word or sign of greeting. He 
was a smuggler, peaceful, but notorious for his sly- 
ness. 

He had the face of a baboon. <A broad flat nose, 
pitch-black hair, a low bulge instead of a human fore- 
head, tiny little dog’s eyes, and a broad, round pro- 
tuberant muzzle. On his upper lip the black hair was 
thin, but his throat and his cheeks up to his temples 
and under his eyes were covered with a heavy growth. 
This creature, which after all was to be addressed as 
a man, was small but powerfully built. His garments 
consisted of some sort of breeches, a sort of coat, and 
a sort of shirt. His shirt stood open in the front and 
revealed his body covered with thick hair like an ani- 
mal’s almost to the navel. 

The smuggler evidently took Quint for a colleague. 
He went out of the hut, and squatted on all fours at 
the rill in the knee-pine, and greedily lapped the ice- 
cold glacier water like a poodle. His thirst was great. 
He had behind him a long, wearisome climb from the 
Hirschberger valley up over all sorts of criss-cross 
ways, which he took alternately, scarcely ever going to 
the same place for a rest more than once a year. 

His smuggler’s tricks, his great good humour, and, 
by no means least, his awful ugliness, had made him 
renowned over a wide district as Bohemian Joe. 

He entered the hut again and remarked to Quint, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 105 


**Tt’s uncertain to-day.” With that he took up his 
pack, disappeared, and returned without the pack. 
** We shall not be able to stay here after all,” he said, 
and pointed to the peak surmounted by the hospice. 

The people up there looking like ants were crawling 
about on the edge of the crag and emitting shouts, 
which, echoing through the rocky corridors, seemed to 
bear no relation to the insects that produced them. 

*'That’s for us,” said Bohemian Joe in his moun- 
tain dialect. He lingered a while, and unpacked the 
large crusty end of the loaf of bread wrapped in a 
gay cloth. He wanted to lay in a cargo for the trip. 

Now the two men heard the barking of dogs. Since 
Quint had the clearest conscience in the world, he could 
not see how the shouting of men and the barking of 
dogs concerned him. But the eyes of Bohemian Joe, 
keen as an eagle’s, had already discerned a forester, 
a frontier soldier, and another man in uniform. 

* Hurry up! Now we’ve got to sprint.” 

With a leap and a bound he was at his pack strap- 
ping it on his shoulder. Had it not been for the 
dogs, he might have left it there temporarily. \ He 
beckoned to Quint to follow him. <A cunning smile on 
his lips closed like an ape’s seemed to say, “If they 
catch us now, no more Bohemian Joe.” 

Mechanically, without knowing exactly why, Quint 
followed the smuggler. For some time they crept 
along obscure paths, themselves completely hidden by 
the knee-pine. Strangely enough they made for the 
very direction from which the three pursuers were ap- 
proaching. They crossed and re-crossed a stream 
several times to put the dogs off the scent, and at 
_ the very moment that the forester, the frontier soldier, 
and the gendarme began to make search in Quint’s hut, 


106 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


they found themselves unseen directly at the base of the 
crag surmounted on high by the hospice. 
* * * * # # % # 


The forester, the frontier inspector, and the gen- 
darme had met by chance in the hospice, where a good 
beer was served. ‘There the tourists had told them of 
the strange Fool who made the mountain-side unsafe. 
So the man of law, the gendarme, felt he had to face 
the discharge of a very tedious task that his superiors 
had assigned to him. A sheriff of the district of 
Reichenbach had sent a circular letter to various offi- 
cials of the district of Hirschberg saying that one 
Emanuel Quint had disappeared from his native vil- 
lage, that a search was being made for the said Quint, 
because from the reports of a number of trustworthy 
witnesses he was suspected of all sorts of public mis- 
chief, the same having been proved in various par- 
ishes, and so on. Even his mother, the wife of a car- 
penter, had nothing good to say for him. Moreover, 
it was to be established whether it was not necessary 
to place the said Quint in a workhouse or the county 
insane asylum. For all these reasons the police officers 
were requested to arrest the said Quint wherever they 
came upon him. | 

In addition passers-by had recognised the Hassen- 
pflug brothers as Quint’s companions, and pointed them 
out to the gendarme. Whereat the gendarme, his 
spurs jingling, strode over to the table at which the 
students sat. They were slow to answer him, and in- 
tentionally gave him inaccurate information, and joked 
him teasingly. They mixed so much Latin with their 
banter and altogether were so hard to understand that 
the gendarme, though several times turning red with 
rage, could not take exception to what they said. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 107 


The inn-keeper, the lessee of the hospice, now 
stepped up to invite the gendarme to the use of his 
spy-glass, a long telescope set up on the peak of a 
rock outside, for which tourists paid to peep through. 
The frontier officer and the forester accompanied the 
host and the gendarme; and the sensation-seekers among 
the hospice guests of course trundled after. 

For weeks the host had seen by means of the spy- 
glass, a strange man down below in an unfrequented 
part of the mountain-side. He seemed to be leading 
the life of a hermit. 

And now as they looked they could clearly see him 
at the entrance to the little hut. And what was more, 
they saw him in the company of Bohemian Joe. 

“ Unfortunately,” said the forester when they found 
the birds flown, “ unfortunately, while we were look- 
ing through the telescope, the people made too much 
of a hullabaloo. That Bohemian Joe needn’t be 
warned twice.” 


* * % * * * % * 


Bohemian Joe’s flight — Quint followed him the 
whole time —lasted for hours. Finally they reached 
a hut on the Bohemian side where they might feel 
secure at least from the Prussian officials. From the 
hut they had a wide prospect far over the beautiful 
old woodlands of Bohemia into Austria. It was situ- 
ated in so solitary a spot that the other dwellings scat- 
tered here and there in the labyrinth of the high-walled 
valleys looked like toy buildings of a dwarf race. 

In the interior the hut was propped up by a number 
of black posts, through which, to reach the room 
proper, you had to wind your way as through the up- 
rights of a shaft. Across the ceiling of the living 


108 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


room a split beam hung so low that Quint with his 
head brushed down from the deep holes in it some of 
the sawdust made by the wood-worms. ‘The sun had 
set. A pale light entered through the dim window 
panes — where there were panes and not holes stuffed 
with straw or nailed up with boards. 

Here, in this room, Bohemian Joe seemed to be at 
home, though nobody greeted him. He took off his 
pack in the dark, and lit a match at a crack between 
the tiles of the stove. It sputtered up and filled the 
room with a sharp smell of phosphorus. With the 
match he hunted about and found a tallow candle 
stuck in the mouth of a bottle. Slowly the light spread 
and revealed a woful picture of neglect. Even Bo- 
hemian Joe felt he had to weaken the impression by 
saying the place looked a bit * curious.” 

Quint, though familiar with misery, was compelled 
to admit it was curious. He was almost driven back 
into the open air by the vile, choking smell of ordure, 
decay, and cold damp. At the instant the candle 
caught light he saw four or five mice scamper in all 
directions across the black clay floor. Indeed, little 
suspicious scurrying sounds came from all over, from 
the window-sills and the table, that filled one corner of 
the room. Joe explained: 

“That is what happens when they eat up the cats.” 

But Quint was already fascinated by another, a 
phantomlike sight, and paid no attention to what Joe 
said. Was it a real thing he saw or only an illusion 
of his soul wearied by all the impressions of the day? 
It seemed to him as if in the faint pale moonlight at 
the window, or formed of the moonlight, there was 
sitting an old, old woman, snow-white against the black 
of the room. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 109 


Quint, moved by profound awe, must have whispered 
something very softly, because Joe encouraged him to 
be wholly at his ease and speak aloud. He said the 
old woman was one hundred and ten years old, some 
even averred one hundred and fourteen. Many were 
of the opinion she could never die. She could not die 
because in her lifetime she had not been altogether 
right. By that he meant to say she had done godless 
things, had impiously practised witchcraft, and as pun- 
ishment she was unable to obtain the peace of death. 

At that moment a strange, wonderful sound filled 
the room, a sort of singing which, though accompanied 
by words, was so supernaturally soft and touching that 
you could not believe it came from a human throat. 
Little boys do not sing that way, nor little girls, nor 
yet trained singers of this world, such as Quint had 
heard in the village churches. No voice exercised a 
power so quiet, so puzzling, so harrowing. 

Emanuel instantly forgot himself and his surround- 
ings. Unconsciously, involuntarily he went over and 
stood opposite the old woman —for she it was and 
none other who sang. Tears ran down his face, but 
he was unaware of them. As if investigating a mys- 
tery of strange regions he searched the large, rigid, 
noble features of the centenarian. Her skin was 
withered, but tenderly transparent and shining like a 
child’s, and long loose snowy locks flowed about her 
face. There was not the least perceptible movement of 
her thin white lips as the simple words quivered from 
the sublime old woman’s soul. 


“My little shirt is sewed, 
My little bed is made. 
Come, oh, come, 

Thou last, eternal night!” 


110 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Bohemian Joe burst out laughing. 

“That song,” he said, “ this isn’t the first time the 
shrivelled old hag has droned it. But she won’t dic 
for a good long time yet. There’s things, there’s all 
sorts of things in the world. One can do them, an- 
other can’t. She knew how. She was a tough ’un.” 

Suddenly a goat bleating loudly came in from the 
outside and poked its snout at the old woman sitting in 
the pale moonlight like a figure of snow. But she did 
not stir. She kept her eyes fixed in front of her. Her 
withered, crooked hands lay dead in her lap. With 
her inner senses she seemed to belong to another realm 
of creation. With her outer senses she seemed to be 
lifeless. 

‘Well, now for something to eat,” said Bohemian 
Joe, and went into the entry. From there Quint soon 
heard the worn-out squeak of a barrel-organ. That 
was the way in which Joe, who always possessed a 
surplus of good humour, advertised his presence in 
the organ-grinder’s hut. Whereat the almost sep- 
tuagenarian grandson of the old woman, an organ- 
grinder, came groping his way down the ladder from 
his box-room in the loft. 

As he descended, stepping on the creaking rounds 
emitting rude sounds intelligible only to Joe, he re- 
sembled a gigantic tower wrapped in rags. As soon 
as he reached the floor he began to break twigs over 
his knees until he had a large bundle of them ready. 
He gathered them up in the skirts of his military coat 
as women gather things in their aprons, carried the 
fagots into the living-room, and let them drop in front 
of the stoke-hole of the oven. Joe kept speaking to 
him the whole time. 

Quint still stood sunk in observation of the old 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST BEL 


woman while the goat eagerly licked the palm of his 
left hand. Half alive to what was going on around 
him he heard names mentioned, the names, probably, 
of men who plied their trade in secret ways no differ- 
ently from Joe. And a little later, when steps in the 
entry announced visitors, he concluded they must be 
the smugglers Joe had spoken of. 

Three contrabandists now actually made their ap- 
pearance. They gave Joe a loud, lively greeting, 
evidently delighted to be in a secure place of rest after 
long, wearisome wanderings. Again the barrel-organ 
resounded from the vestibule, where it was kept on a 
bench built in the house. Joe in his love of fun had 
set it going. 

Soon after the smugglers were seated at the table 
shuffling cards and passing about a Selters bottle filled 
with corn brandy. When it reached Quint, he handed 
it on without taking a drink. 

That made him the butt of some coarse remarks. 

And many such remarks were aimed at the old woman. 
The smugglers, though they had dishonoured the holy 
day, made up by celebrating it freely with brandy. 
They called her ugly names and abused and reviled her, 
speaking aloud. One of the smugglers then wanted 
to know whence Quint came and whither he was going. 

Without replying the Fool arose and kissed the old 
woman’s hands. ‘Then he walked over to her grand- 
son, who was shoving the iron pot of potatoes into 
the oven, to ask him some questions, among others 
where the old woman’s bed was. The shaggy-headed 
brute of an organ-grinder pointed to an old bare 
frame of boards in the corner. Quint took the ancient 
woman in his arms, and carried her there. It was a 


surprisingly, startlingly light burden. 


112 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The freak of a man now acted the part of the Good 
Samaritan and professional physician. He brought 
water and washed the old woman, who trembled 
strangely under his kindly touch, and began to draw 
long, slow, deep breaths. 

The players did not lower their voices, yet they 
refrained from interfering. 

One of them was a small, pale, hump-backed fellow 
by the name of Schwabe, once a tailor. Heaven knows 
how he came to take up the profession of smuggling. 
Shy as a rule, yet, curiously enough, most daring, as 
the other smugglers knew, when it came to actual 
danger. There was something droll about him which 
inclined the roughest hearts in his favour. Besides, he 
was ever ready to do a service, so that he always stood 
in people’s good graces. He was a Protestant. Never- 
theless he stopped before all the so-called marterln + on 
the Bohemian side, and prayed, and while ascending 
the mountains he sang indiscriminately fprofane songs 
and pious hymns. He was full of odd conceits which 
made his companions laugh. He gave them descrip- 
tions of the world originating in his own limited un- 
derstanding, which met with some credulity and some 
scepticism, and made him and his entertainment prized. 

Schwabe, instead of playing cards, read trash from 
a smeary newspaper. But now he looked up from the 
paper to follow Quint’s doings with some interest. 
He drew his companions’ attention from their cards 
and began to give one of those marvellous accounts 
always at the disposal of his gift of gab. 

Something wonderful had happened to him to-day, 
he said, and added as he never failed to, 


1 Small pictures representing a person’s death by an accident 
in the mountains, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 113 


“You don’t believe it. But I tell you, I swear a 
holy oath, it’s so.” 

“ Well, what is it, tailor?’ the others asked. 

“It’s as true as I am sitting here. This morning 
I saw Klenner’s wife washing out pails, carrying water 
to the cows in the stalls, and climbing up to the hay- 
loft, just as good as ourselves.” 

“‘Klenner’s wife? She’s been paralysed for years. 
She get up from her chair? ” 

“'That’s what I’m telling you. They took her to 
Schubert’s hut this morning, and she came back spry 
as a weasel.” 

Then he went on to give a highly decorated account 
of what had happened that morning in front of 
Schubert’s hut. In his narrative Emanuel figured as 
a sort of medical wonder-worker. Twice he had saved 
the Sultan and the Emperor of Austria from certain 
death. In Hungary or somewhere under a stone he 
had found the recipe for a salve said to be an all- 
powerful remedy. But the most remarkable thing, 
Schwabe thought, was this, that the wonder-worker 
all of a sudden vanished as into thin air from the very 
midst of the crowd. 

“ Wait a bit,” said Bohemian Joe amid the laughter 
of the others. He had risen at the tailor’s last 
words. ‘“ Let’s take a closer look at the fellow over 
there.” 

In one of those moods that suddenly came upon him 
he refused to play cards any longer. The others so 
far having been the losers raised a howl. But the little 
man was not to be moved. | 

Something, he knew not what, had flashed through 
his mind. Had Quint from the beginning made an 
inexplicable impression upon him? Or did it sud- 


114 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


denly occur to him that it was a sin for him, good 
Catholic that he was, to be gambling on Whitsunday? 
Or was he of a sudden seized with pity for the old 
woman whom death seemed to have forgotten? How- 
ever that may be, he got up, went over to the Fool, 
and sighing oddly, began to philosophise upon the 
sadness of existence in general and that of the old 
woman in particular. 

When a person came to Emanuel speaking in such a 
tone he knew the soil had been prepared, and forth- 
with commenced to sow the seed of the kingdom. Each 
time he began that way, he spoke so purely and simply 
that to everybody, no matter what his nature, it seemed 
less of a beginning than something long, long known. 
Nothing to sunder or separate was any longer present. 
What was inmost and truest in man’s nature was bound 
without hindrance to all that is inmost and truest. 

The old woman lying on the boards stretched out 
straight and stark felt cold even though Emanuel had 
covered her up to the chin with his own jacket and 
all sorts of rags. So Joe went to fetch a brick for 
her that had been warmed up on the hearth. Whereat 
a stream of ridicule poured over him from the table 
where the gamblers sat. Even more fell to Quint’s 
share for having drawn away their companion. All 
at once Bohemian Joe was seized with one of his 
dreaded fits of anger. Holding the brick aloft he 
suddenly stood in front of the rowdies — an immediate 
threat not to be misunderstood from one of his wild 
nature. 

Often in taverns the hideous gypsy-like little fellow 
had given samples of his herculean strength —“ just 
for fun.” And he had served a few terms in jail for 
acts of violence committed when he was out of his 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 115 


senses. For as a rule he was a good-natured creature. 
Now a word from the Fool summoned him back to the 
old woman’s deathbed. 

Schwabe, too, left his place by the gamblers, and 
shambled shyly to the bed. A peculiar solemn certainty 
had arisen in his mind that here at last was the near 
end of a more than hundred-year life-struggle. 
Hence it did not seem surprising to him when Quint 
explained this in a loud voice to the old woman’s aged 
grandson. 


% * * * * * * * 


But almost eight hours were still needed before the 
old woman could breathe her last. It happened at the 
time when the sun in its might broke forth from the 
gates of the east casting dark red beams, which 
coloured the waxen yellow face with purple patches. 
Quint bound the dead woman’s sagging jaw with a 
piece of coarse blue linen that Schwabe proffered, tying 
it firmly over her fine, rosy bare head. Then hushed 
silence prevailed in the room, while the light of the 
morning’ spread. 

The other smugglers had betaken themselves off 
long before. But Quint sat with Schwabe and Joe 
at the very table the gamblers had tossed their cards 
and beat their fists on. He spoke or read from the 
Bible. He had slept little, and at the sight of the old 
woman had always thought of his own mother. She 
must have missed him. He pictured to himself how 
painful every mother’s fate is and how the burden of 
a long life is made still heavier by loneliness. Bohemian 
Joe having been a foundling had never known a father 
or mother. Schwabe, after his seventh year, had been 
exclusively in his mother’s care, and when fourteen 


116 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


years old his mother had once taken him to see a man 
kept behind lock and key in the prison of a large city. 
The man, he was told, was his father. 

Somewhat stirred and brought close to one another 
by similar recollections, a grave meditative spirit took 
hold of them and caused them to speak of serious 
things. 

“Why,” asked Joe addressing Emanuel in an 
altered, respectful tone, *“ why, after she died, did you. 
stand at the window so long, crying? Were you re- 
lated to her? ” 

*“* Because,” answered Emanuel, “life is unutterably 
painful to most of us.” Then he went on to speak of 
the darkness of this night-enveloped earth and how 
the spirits of the departed are transfigured by the 
purification of life — for life is always a purification! 
Since they seemed not to understand, he read from 
Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians: 

** And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with 
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you 
the testimony of God. 

“For I determined not to know any thing among 
you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

** And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and 
in much trembling. 

“And my speech and my preaching was not with 
enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration 
of the Spirit and of power: 

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
men, but in the power of God. 

“ Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are 
perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the 
princes of this world, that come to nought: 

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 117 


even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the 
world unto our glory; 

“ Which none of the princes of this world knew: 
for had they known it, they would not have crucified 
the Lord of glory. 

“ But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard.” 

These words read without pathos had an effect very 
different from the effect of the Bible when read from 
the pulpit. They aroused his listeners’ eagerness for 
knowledge. And since it is natural in man always to 
be looking for the revelation of something concealed, 
they hoped through Emanuel to see both himself and 
the Scriptures explained, which intimated things so 
puzzling. But Emanuel had chosen that particular 
passage thinking it would speak for him both in regard 
to what he said and what he left unsaid. All he ac- 
complished was that the two men inquired about the 
very mystery which they, only half convinced, sup- 
posed was the wonderful power that knew the right 
moment at which to heal and at which to kill. 

Thus Emanuel was compelled to say he had chosen 
to be a messenger of the Gospel of his own free will. 
As a child he had received the baptism of those who 
were dead, lukewarm, false Christians. Later he had 
received the baptism of John the Baptist, and finally 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This, the last, 
baptism contained the mystery of the kingdom. 

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he con- 
tinued, “ be with us all. Amen.” 

With that he arose and was about to depart when 
a neatly, simply clad woman entered. It was the wife 
of the school teacher of a poor community in the 
neighbourhood. For years she had been sending or 


118 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


bringing the old woman soup. Now she saw she was 
dead, and when she fully realised how her weak attempt 
at benevolence had been outdone by a stronger hand, she 
sank into silence, visibly moved. 


CHAPTER VI 


Tue teacher’s wife had recognised Quint as soon as 
she entered the room. It was not the first time she 
had seen him. About a week before, co-religionists in 
Prussia had recommended the Scharf brothers to her hus- 
band as exemplary ministers of the Word. He gave 
them a hearty welcome, as was to be expected from 
one of those who await the coming of Christ. When 
they told him the object of their journeyings, the 
simple man expressed some slight astonishment, if not 
actual scruples, even though they had refrained from 
speaking of the delusion that dominated them. Their 
ardour, their eagerness to find Quint, their extravagant 
admiration of him, the praise they lavished upon him 
—all this, perforce, troubled the teacher. So also 
the fact that the brothers had sold their homestead. 

He did not keep his concern hidden from his wife. 
It is always a serious matter if industrious workmen 
leave their work and go about idle. But still more 
serious if they accept too credulously or put too 
literal a construction upon things which, if not taken 
with allowances, are apt to produce mischief. 'Thus, 
the prophecies of a former quack named Thomas, that 
the world was soon coming to an end, seemed to have 
become an irrefutable article of faith to the brothers. 
And Emanuel’s calling as an apostle was raised above 
the least shadow of doubt. 

The teacher deemed it his duty to warn the brothers 
of the false prophets which come in sheep’s clothing, 

119 


_ 120 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of whom the Bible speaks with abhorrence. But he 
had to admit that after hours, aye, days, spent in 
praying, singing, and striving, the belief in the divine 
mission of the vagrant whom they sought remained as 
firmly rooted in their souls as ever. 

They were not to be shaken. Of no avail the long 
discourses by which the pious zealots changed night 
into day, mindful of the word, ‘“ Watch therefore; for 
ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son 
of man cometh.” Finally, the result to be expected 
came about — Stoppe the teacher was almost drawn 
into the whirlpool. At all events he, too, began to 
look for Quint’s coming with some of the tenseness of 
expectancy. 

Scepticism, even in persons of culture and strong 
character, cannot hold out permanently against abso- 
lute conviction. All the less so in a person ready to 
believe, like the teacher. And the Scharf brothers 
kept at him constantly, telling him again and again 
of Quint’s sermon in the market-place of the county 
seat, of the miracle he had wrought with their father, 
of many answers to prayers, and remarkable cures. 
He was at last convinced —by facts, he thought — 
of Quint’s wonder-working power. However, he was 
not sure if Quint’s power and mission on earth pro- 
ceeded from heaven or from hell. It might even come, 
he thought, from mesmeric magnetism joined to a mis- 
guided love of the Saviour, a love that had still to be 
purged. 

After a time the teacher got the brothers into the 
home of the Schuberts. Here for weeks they kept up 
their search for Quint, growing more excited from 
hour to hour. He who has ever experienced how a 
pet illusion for the realisation of which he makes 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 121 


actual efforts, sometimes against all reason, reaches 
enormous proportions, will not be at all astonished that 
the Schubert household became the hotbed of many fan- 
tastic misbeliefs and hallucinations. 

When Quint was at last discovered and_ the 
Schuberts took him under their roof, the brothers vis- 
ited the teacher to tell him of their happy find and 
report all the new wonders of Quint. They asked the 
teacher to return with them. He held back, using im- 
portant duties as a pretext. But Mrs. Stoppe could 
not resist her growing curiosity. The evening of the 
very same day she went to Schubert’s hut, and reached 
it just as Quint was going out to wander by himself in 
the moonlight in the solitudes of the mountain ridge. 


* * * * * * * * 


At about ten o’clock in the morning of the day the 
old woman died Mrs. Stoppe took Quint back to the 
school with her. The school was a tiny log house with 
a garden in front, where the teacher, a man of about 
forty, was busy with his bee hives. He saw his wife 
and the stranger coming, and was peculiarly, perhaps 
a bit uncomfortably, moved. But he went to meet his 
wife, and held out his hand to her companion. 

Mrs. Stoppe, noticing how greatly exhausted 
Emanuel was, went in to prepare a room for him. In 
the meanwhile the teacher showed him his bees. 
Emanuel went straight up to the hives. The teacher 
warned him. But Emanuel without the least fear let 
the excited bees crawl over his face and hands. He 
even plucked them from his hair and dusty feet and 
set them back at the hole. 

It was in a very sweet bed that Quint soon after 
laid himself to sleep, and it was in an exquisitely clean 


122 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


kitchen — also the living-room— amid shining pots 
and pans of earthen and pewter ware that Mrs. 
Stoppe sat some time later telling her husband where 
she had found Quint in the morning. The incident 
of the old woman’s death and, unfortunately, the Fool 
himself had made an unmistakable impression upon 
her. She was profoundly stirred by the strange cir- 
cumstance that the old woman, whom everybody 
avoided, who could not die, they said, because of her 
past sins, had died almost in his arms. He had set 
her soul free. 

“If he had been with us, that time, the good, pious 
man, our children would not have died,” she said, and 
began to weep silently, rising at the same time, and 
busying herself at the hearth. 

The thing that had given this woman the real con- 
tent of her lonely existence had been two children. 
They left behind them a new content for her life — 
her mourning for them. 

Stoppe chided his wife. 

“We should be resigned,” he said. ‘* We should 
not be impatient. We should be glad. As the apostle 
‘says, our flesh shall rest in hope of the Lord. But 
~ we must not be too eager in our hope. Every day we 
should open our windows and keep watch against false 
prophets. For Jesus, the true Saviour, said, as you 
can read in St. Luke, chapter xxi, verse 8, ‘ Take heed 
that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my 
name saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: 
go ye not therefore after them.” And in St. Matthew 
it says, ‘There shall arise false Christs, and false 
prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; inso- 
much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the 
very elect.? Therefore let us be on our guard.” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 123 


“TJ do not believe,” said his wife, “that he thinks 
or does wrong things, or bears evil in his heart. Be- 
sides, I did not say I took him to be a prophet.. He 
himself does not consider he is. It seems to me he 
speaks as a man, acts as a man, and walks simply as 
a man.” 

The teacher shook his soft St. John’s head doubt- 
fully. 

‘We cannot help putting upon him the responsi- 
bility for much of what happened, and you know the 
responsibility has been put upon him. Let each man 
do his duty, and serve God in secret in the place that 
has been assigned to him. In answer to my prayers He 
put me in this remote spot, where I seem the nearer to 
Him the farther I am from people. God blessed me in 
my doings, and He daily makes it clear to me that I 
am not entirely useless to my people and their children 
scattered about here in their poverty-stricken huts. 
That, I think, should be enough for us.” 

Stoppe’s wife was the daughter of a minister, and 
various misfortunes in her father’s house had taught 
her to think. 

“ Because Emanuel Quint,” she said, “serves the 
Saviour in a different manner, we must not conclude ~ 
that he is all wrong and evil.” 

She reminded her husband of the community of the 
saints founded by the apostles and still accepted even 
from the pulpits as existent in Christ. And shoving 
a freshly baked pancake still in the pan under the 
teacher’s nose she expressed the strong conviction that 
Quint, if anyone in the community, was a true, genuine 
saint. 

‘“‘ He is making my people unruly,” said the teacher. 
“They run about with heated brains, and tell one an- 


124 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


other absurdities. ‘They will get themselves and me into 
trouble.” The teacher spoke somewhat testily, lapsed 
into silence, ate his pancake, and then went on, “ And 
whom will the police blame?) The man that shelters 
him. Who but I will have to bear the consequences 
if the scandal spreads? ”’ 

“Tt all depends,” his wife rejoined, “‘ upon whether 
Quint is a deceiver or a true Christian. If he is a 
true Christian and truly filled with the pure apostolic 
spirit, we do not have to stop and question whether 
to reject or follow him. Because the greatest good 
that can befall us upon earth is to suffer for the sake 
of Him who unhesitatingly died upon the cross for us.” 

To this the teacher had nothing to say. 


* * * * * % * * 


At about two o’clock in the afternoon Anton 
Scharf called upon the teacher, entering the house 
noisily. He was pale and nervous and his lips 
twitched uneasily under his blond, pointed little beard. 
His brown hair stood up on end like a brush. He called 
out a lively “ How do you do?” and threw his cap 
carelessly on one of the benches of the little school- 
room. Mr. and Mrs. Stoppe were just then engaged 
in hanging a picture of Christ walking upon the Sea 
of Galilee. 

Anton Scharf’s excitement was of a peculiar sort. 
There was a certain solemnity at the bottom of it, 
with an admixture of wildness, of defiance, and eager- 
ness for fight, even eagerness for violence. 

“Brother,” he shouted, so that the schoolroom 
fairly shook, “the signs and wonders multiply. These 
past few days we have seen things that everybody should 
take to heart. We have seen the living power of the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 125 


apostles, the living power of God. I say unto you, a 
child has been born unto us that is now walking in our 
midst, whose coming was prophesied in the Holy Writ. 
Not we alone have seen him. Hundreds of the poor, 
sick, weary, and heavy-laden have seen his countenance 
shine, have heard his voice — and were healed. Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, this one is more than an apostle 
and a prophet! The children of the world also feel 
his coming, and bestir themselves. They crane their 
necks, they scent the day of judgment. ‘They are up 
and abroad to seize him with swords and staves. But 
nowhere is it written that Jesus shall be crucified by 
them a second time.” 

The misguided man raised his fist and shook it at 
the Prussian side of the mountains, whence, it seemed, 
he expected the onslaught of the enemies of God’s king- 
dom. 

“ And when these things begin to come to pass,” he 
continued, his eyes sparkling, “ then look up, and lift up 
your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Con- 
cluding his peroration with this citation from 5t. Luke, 
he drew forth a huge red handkerchief, and wiped away 
the large drops of perspiration from his forehead and 
neck. 

The teacher in a calm, almost icy voice, asked what 
it was all about. But it was no easy matter to get exact 
information from Scharf in the excited state he was in. 
So much, however, was certain, that the Prussian police 
were looking for Quint. The teacher had already heard 
this in the morning from passers-by. Finally Scharf 
recovered sufficiently to give a more accurate account. 

In the morning a gendarme had come riding up on 
horseback to Schubert’s hut, which was surrounded by 
just as many of the poor as on the day before. He 


126 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


questioned a number of them roughly, and then or- 
dered all of them to be off. He said repeatedly that the 
police were after Quint because he was nothing but a 
lazy fellow who shirked work. Next he went into the 
hut, his spurs jingling, his sabre dragging on the 
ground, and subjected the three Schuberts and Anton 
himself to a painful cross-examination — Martin was 
not present, having left the day before in search of 
Quint. The gendarme carefully noted everything in 
his memorandum book. 

“I suppose he hoped he would find proof that we 
were beggars, or something worse,” said Scharf. ‘“ But 
I gave him a piece of my mind, and I proved to him 
that we were independent men, not without means for 
the present, and that we did not have to apply to any- 
one for alms. Apparently that did not exactly suit 
his purpose. So you see how important it is now and 
in the future to be protected against want by having 
some means and be shielded from the wickedness of the 
children of the world.” 

It was plain to see that Anton’s narrative and unre- 
strained manner disquieted Stoppe. His face turned 
pale. 

* Brother Scharf,” he said, calling him “ Brother ” 
in the usage of the Moravian Brethren, ‘‘ we are bound 
by an express commandment of the Lord not to resist 
the authorities.” 

Scharf was taken aback. Stoppe urged him to be 
calm, and questioned him a long time, kindly and mildly, 
though almost in greater detail than the gendarme. 
He asked about Emanuel’s previous life, whether sinful 
things were not concealed in his past. 

“ No,”’ answered Brother Scharf, ‘‘ I believe, I believe 
with all confidence.” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 127 


He was convinced that Emanuel had fled because he 
had had foreknowledge of the coming of the gendarme. 
For that reason he was not fearful for Quint’s safety. 

Stoppe now told Anton that Quint was under the 
very same roof as himself. Anton started. He clapped 
his hard hand to his brow, as if something had suddenly 
become clear to him — the irresistible impulse that had 
sent him to the little log-house of the teacher. 

The teacher looking out of the window saw that the 
same attractive force had been at work in others beside 
Anton. A number of the country folk were gathered 
there. His conscience was touched and being genuinely 
pious he proposed to turn to God in the apostolic way, 
and pray for enlightenment. He was convinced of the 
efficacy of prayer, believing in Jesus’ promise, “ What- 
soever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.” He 
went to God in prayer for even lesser things, and when 
he exchanged pious opinions with co-religionists, he 
never failed to mention certain hints that God had let 
drop after his prayer, definite, unambiguous answers 
to his prayers. 

The three now offered up silent and spoken prayers, 
to which the teacher’s wife added a few gentle, fervent 
words. They earnestly besought the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost to disclose to them whether Emanuel Quint 
stood in God’s favor or was possessed of a spirit of 
error. 

Suddenly from under the window they heard the 
strains of a choral sung by women and children — the 
answer to their prayers. 


“© Jesus, my sweet light, 
Now is the night departed, 
Now is Thy saving grace 
To me again imparted.” 


128 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


And they joined in the chorus. 


* * * * * * * * 


It was Martha Schubert who had come singing the 
song. On hearing it a number of women and children 
and a few men had hastened up and swelled the chorus. 
The mere fact of its being Friday in Whitsuntide week 
would have brought them. 

Bohemian Joe and Schwabe had advertised the old 
woman’s death at the Inn of the Seven Valleys. ‘They 
had spoken with loud-mouthed conviction of the saving 
effect produced, in their opinion, by the wonder-work- 
ing physician. From the inn the report travelled, and 
went from house to house. That Quint was being 
harboured in the schoolhouse also became known. 

And suddenly, before Stoppe could prevent him, An- 
ton Scharf in a passion to give testimony threw open 
the window and shouted like a madman to the increasing 
crowd, uttering words that came rushing to his mind 
from the Acts of the Apostles. 

“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet 
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your 
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things | 
whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come 
to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that 
Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” 

While all this was happening at the front of the 
house, the prophet was sleeping a death-like sleep in 
the room under the gable. Mrs. Stoppe, when she saw 
the waves of excitement rising, and especially Brother 
Anton’s loud-spoken enthusiasm, feared Quint might 
be awakened from his well-earned rest. She expressed 
her concern to Brother Anton and then to the multitude 
waiting outside, among whom she went with the perfect 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 129 


confidence of a woman who knew each one personally, 
and who on occasion had done good to each. 

She attempted to calm them, and herself a picture 
of composure, exhorted the crowd of poor people to 
be patient. She said Emanuel Quint was undoubt- 
edly a true and upright minister of God. That was 
enough! There was no need to ascribe powers and in- 
tentions to him that were absolutely incompatible with 
his simple humility. 

The effect of this last admonition was nullified by 
many voices raised at the same time to protest emphat- 
ically that Emanuel had performed miracles which ex- 
cluded all doubt. 

At this point the former tailor’s apprentice Seiwabe 
elbowed his way through the jabbering throng to Mrs. 
Stoppe. Stuttering and stammering, as was his way, 
he told her he had something to say to her in private. 
In the dark entry, where Mrs. Stoppe stood holding 
the door shut with her hand on the knob, Schwabe 
told her that on the Austrian side they were also hot 
in pursuit of Quint, and it was by no means im- 
probable — and nobody need be surprised — that the 
police would appear at the schoolhouse in less than 
an hour. A minute later Schwabe was repeating his 
statement in the schoolroom to the teacher and Anton 
Scharf. | 

The teacher said if it was the gendarme from the 
Spindelmiihle, he could probably prevent Quint’s being 
arrested. Perhaps, too, he might answer for him other- 
wise if only the many poor people were not standing 
about the schoolhouse, since that in the eyes of the po- 
lice was an offence. 

* But Quint is without means of support,” he con- 
tinued. ‘So possibly in spite of anything we say, they 


130 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


will take him right over the border into Prussia and de- 
liver him to the police there.” 

Finally the teacher concluded it was wisest to awaken 
Quint and tell him everything. 

While they were debating what to do, Martin Scharf 
put in appearance, and asked if Quint was in 
the house. At the general “ Yes” the man, wearied 
by his long search and lack of sleep, broke down, sob- 
bing and shedding tears of joy. 

As when a spark falls upon a heap of inflammable 
material, the heap bursts into flames, so the little assem- 
blage was set a-sobbing and crying by Martin Scharf’s 
sudden transport. They fell into a paroxysm of broth- 
erliness and community of spirit, weeping and embra- 
cing and bestowing apostolic kisses upon one another. 


* * * * * * * * 


Emanuel in his curtained room had after all been 
awakened by the uproar downstairs, and lay on his back 
listening and busying his brain with scruples. He im- 
mediately interpreted the noises as applying to himself, 
having learned to recognise them at the Schuberts’. He 
knew a credulous multitude, demanding help in their 
great need, was awaiting him outside. Involuntarily 
folding his hands, he prayed to the Divine in profound 
introspection. 

It was always the essence of his prayers to place him- 
self as an instrument entirely under the will of the God- 
head. He looked back upon the past few days. He 
had not the feeling of having sought anything in life 
other than God, nor of having come the way to the 
teacher’s house of his own volition. Yet he asked, 
“ Did I walk in the right way? Did I indeed do not 
my will but Thine?” And trying in his spirit to 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 131 


destroy the last remnant of his own will, he threw him- 
self on his face before God and implored: 

*“* Make of me nothing but a word, a breath, a glance, 
a pulse-beat of Thee! 

“It is said Christ left the power to perform miracles 
to his apostles. I am not an apostle. I am wholly un- 
worthy to be an apostle. The Saviour’s love is like a 
sea, Mine is but a trickling rill. The true Saviour’s 
love is a force that not only makes sick bodies whole, 
but with a breath changes souls condemned to hell into 
blessed angels in heaven. I am a blind man. On my 
closed eyelids rests the shadow of the shadow of such 
love. Yea, were I certain it were really the shadow 
of the shadow of the Saviour’s love, I could with that 
alone turn the desert of the world into a millennial 
paradise. 

“ But I cannot perform wonders. Far be it from 
me to believe I could do more than has already been 
wrought by the abundant grace of the eternal wisdom. 
Is it for me to wish to improve Thy work, thou Holy 
Ghost? I am not so arrogant. I harbour not in my- 
self such madness of presumption. 

“Thou knowest, Thou which art in me! Nothing 
is hidden from Thee! But why sendest Thou these 
needy ones to me, who seek what is earthly, not divine, 
something of which the children of the world perhaps 
deprive them, not the children of heaven? They fill 
me with pity. My heart overflows with compassion. 
And with all my soul I would give them of the heavenly 
that is in me. How much more of the earthly! For 
it is nothing to me to part with the earthly. Lead me! 
Teach me whether and how I should show compassion 
and love to my brothers and sisters groping in terrestrial 
darkness! Or should I turn from them and their piti- 


132 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ful, bitter, fleeting needs and return wholly to Thine 
heart? 

“ But why forsooth have I been placed here in the 
world? Why was I sent down in this earthly body of 
frailty and bear Thee in me like a light? Should I 
not light the way for my brothers? For whom should 
the way be lit if not for them that sit in darkness? ‘To 
whom should God be brought if not to the godless? 
Who should be led back home if not the stray sheep? 
Who should be comforted and led up to light if not 
they that have been thrust into darkness, where there is 
wailing and gnashing of teeth? Who returns home 
and is received with love and rejoicing by his father? 
None other than the prodigal son, who takes his small 
portion of goods in arrogance and eats husks with the 
swine.” 

And Quint tossed about in bed, and wrung his hands, 
and pressed his face in the pillows, and whispered sob- 
bing: : 

‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy 
sight. Lord, Lord, I am no more worthy to be called 
Thy son.” 

A feeling of profound remorse came upon him, joined 
to the glowing desire to suffer for the Father, die for 
Him, extinguish himself entirely. A feeling of sin filled 
him. But the cause of it was hidden. He could not 
recall that he had ever, like the prodigal son, wilfully 
gone into a far country. But he had no doubts of his 
own sin. And now he thought he understood not only 
why the stray sheep followed him, but also why armed 
men on horseback carrying death-dealing weapons 
were restlessly searching for him, why they were hunt- 
ing him down like a wild animal. His sin was from 
long before. It resided in nothing earthly. It was not 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 133 


that he endeavoured to imitate God and follow in Jesus’ 
steps, but that he had left the Father. 

And for a long time he pondered upon the fall of 
man, revolving this thing and that in his soul, until with 
a sudden jerk he rose from bed, and said softly to him- 
self : 

“J will continue to serve you, my brothers and sis- 
ters.” 

And a new resolve formed within him. It enveloped 
him with a sort of joyous sublimity when he suddenly 
appeared in the schoolroom among the restless people. 
He loved the Scharf brothers, and they had a boundless 
human affection for him. They kissed his hands pas- 
sionately, which for their sake he suffered them to do, 
smiling gently. 


* * * #* * * * * 


As soon as the people outside recognised Quint’s face 
through the window, they stormed up to the house. The 
teacher’s wife succeeded in turning the key in the lock 
of the front door, but when Emanuel Quint ascended 
the little platform, the brothers persuaded her to open 
the door again. Women, children, old men, and young 
men streamed in, Bohemian Joe at their head. An ex- 
pectant solemnity took hold of all. They quietly 
shoved one another into seats on the school-benches, 
and those for whom there were no seats stood crowded 
close together. So many had come, following a blind 
impulse, that the entry and front steps were crowded, 
and a broad place in front of the window was filled with 
an open-mouthed, staring throng. 

Absolute silence prevailed before Quint began to 
speak. This sermon of his, accompanied by the cheep- 
ing of the sparrows outside, was spoken in a tone that 


134 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


could not but move his hearers, though most of them 
did not understand it. 

“ The strength of Jesus,’ he began, “ was made per- 
fect in weakness. Therefore the apostle said, ‘ When I 
am weak, then am I strong.’ Hence let no one fear be- 
cause he is weak, or ignorant, or sick, or even poor. 
And let no one fear because he is persecuted by the chil- 
dren of the world. Jesus was crucified, his apostles 
persecuted and killed. But fear not them which kill 
the body, but are not able to kill the soul. They that 
are dead will be killed, but they that are alive in Christ 
cannot be killed by the dead. He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear,” he continued. ‘ Though we walk in the 
flesh, we do not war after the flesh. We are the peace, 
we are the love of God, nothing else. We are the spirit. 
Christ walked on earth in man’s form. He still walks 
among us. But even though we have seen Him with our 
eyes, touched Him with our hands after the flesh, yet 
now henceforth know we Him no more except in the 
spirit. 

“ He is in us, and we are in Him. ‘That is our solace 
and comfort, and we would rather walk in his spirit out- 
side the body than walk in the body spiritward. Thus 
every affliction that besets us is light and but for a mo- 
ment. For we look not at the things which are seen, 
but at the things which are not seen: for the things 
which are seen are temporal; but the things which are 
not seen are eternal. 

“Do they think to persecute, torture, and destroy 
us? They will dissolve our earthly house, but thereby 
only make manifest that we are a building of God; a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

“ God the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit 
of the Lord is, there is liberty. Therefore they cannot 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 135 


seize us with swords and staves. They cannot cast us 
in a dungeon except it have many doors to the king- 
dom of heaven. 

‘Let it not make us sorry that we are foolish in the 
sight of the world. God hath chosen the foolish things 
of the world, the weak things of the world, and the base 
and despised things of the world. May God help you 
that ye be not foolish in the flesh, but that ye may par- 
take of that foolishness of God which is wiser than men, 
and that weakness of God which is mightier than the 
strength of kings. May God help you to the hidden 
wisdom, that ye snatch not for bread, except it be the 
body of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor for wine, except it 
be the blood of the Lord! Nor for a banquet, except 
it be the Lord’s supper! For when we are merry, we 
rejoice in the Lord; and when we are sorrowful, it is be- 
cause of His affliction. 

‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Cast out 
the natural man, die in the body, and be born again in 
the Spirit. The natural man receiveth nothing of what 
I say, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; 
for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know 
them. The natural man saith of me as the Jews said 
of Paul, ‘ He is a fool for Christ’s sake.? But there is 
nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, and they 
to whom our Gospel has remained hidden until this hour 
shall bide their time and in patience await the fulfil- 
ment of the promise. 

“ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light 
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ. Then we all, with open face, shall behold 
as in a glass the glory of the Lord. 

“Ye men, dear brethren, ye women, dear sisters, fear 


136 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


not because I am persecuted. For we have the testi- 
mony of our conscience that we have our conversation 
in the world in peace, in simplicity, and godly sincerity, 
not with fleshly wisdom. It is our duty to preach 
Christ, reconciliation, and peace. If we are troubled 
on every side, yet we are not distressed. If we are per- 
plexed, yet we are not in despair. If we are perse- 
cuted, yet our souls are not taken captive. If we are 
cast down, yet we remain free. For there is no love 
and no craving so ardent, so irresistible, as for all time 
to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus 
and the life of the Lord Jesus in our hearts.” 
® # « # % * # * 


Up to about the point in his speech where he said 
“Ye men, dear brethren, ye women, dear sisters, fear 
not,” all had listened devoutly. Anton and Martin, of 
course, were completely carried away by the discourse 
of the Fool in Christ. But even the teacher had kept 
his eyes fixed unswervingly upon Quint’s lips, and in 
listening to this new proclamation of the Spirit, he had 
set aside all his scruples regarding true and false proph- 
ets and obedience to the authorities. The teacher’s wife 
and Martha Schubert, sitting on the edge of the low 
platform, had looked up at the preacher prayerfully. 
The teacher’s wife was evidently overcome by a devo- 
tional spirit mounting almost to ecstasy. 

But now low whispering began. Many of those sit- 
ting on the benches craned their necks. <A baby in the 
crowd beneath the window set up a loud wail, and many 
faces turned from Emanuel to see what was happening 
outside. The whispering grew noisier. Of all those 
‘present it was Bohemian Joe who faced about upon 
the audience indignantly and commanded order. 

For an instant there was silence. But the next mo- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 137 


ment there was a commotion outside as when a hawk 
descends upon a flock of sparrows. The people shrieked 
and scattered hastily. The outcry was taken up in the 
entry, from which the crowd jostling and buffeting one 
another stormed into the open. Next the women in the 
schoolroom set up wild shrieks of fright, and a panic 
ensued. The people losing their heads, made a rush 
for the door and window. 

When those who were left in the room — Quint, the 
teacher and his wife, Martha Schubert, the Scharf 
brothers, Schwabe, and Bohemian Joe — had recovered 
from their astonishment, they were at a loss to account 
for the general flight. But the warning cry of “ Po- 
lice!’? coming from the outside gave them the expla- 
nation. | 

Bohemian Joe shook his head and sighed aloud, 
“Well, well! ”? Then he set a bench straight that had 
been upset in the panic, and remarked, ‘‘ That’s the way 
people are,’ and quoted a sentence from the Bible that 
somehow had stuck in his memory, “* The spirit is 
willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

Now Anton Scharf arose and made a somewhat dis- 
connected harangue, speaking angrily and defiantly. 

‘Tf ye think as I do, dear brethren and sisters, let us 
lock with firm locks the tabernacle of God, the manger 
of the Lord, the new Bethlehem, against the onslaught 
of the world. Let us defend it with our hands. Here 
the fire of the Lord came out of the midst of the bush. 
Here the voice of the Lord called unto us out of the 
midst of the bush. The place whereon we stand is holy 
ground. No messenger of hell shall set foot here.” 

With that the man in his frenzy tore the low top- 
boots from his naked feet. This made the Fool smile 
faintly. 


138 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Quint had remained calm, and still remained calm, 
while expressing his disapproval of his faithful ad- 
herent’s violence by shaking his head. 

“We have nothing to do with force,” he said. ‘“ It 
is the way of the true disciple of the Saviour not to re- 
sist evil — to resist not on earth and not with force. 


‘They that seek shall find me.” 
* * * * * * # # 


In the meantime the teacher’s wife had gone to meet 
two Austrian gendarmes, whom she had seen coming. 
The teacher was on the point of following in order to 
uphold her with the police, but changed his mind, and 
went up to Quint on the platform. 

“Tell me,” he asked straightforwardly, “‘ what would 
you have us do? ” 

Quint stood up simply. He wasa little pale. Shrug- 
ging his shoulders almost imperceptibly he answered: 

** Walk in the steps of Jesus Christ.” 

And he went to the door composedly. His friends 
heard him go to his room. 

The gendarme spoke to the teacher’s wife with good- 
natured politeness, though they insisted upon arresting 
Quint, and that without delay, in compliance with their 
orders. On entering the schoolroom both gentlemen 
at the same time emitted an astonished “ Aha!” There 
most unexpectedly they saw before them two persons, 
Schwabe and Bohemian Joe, whose reputation among 
the police on both sides of the border was the same. 
When the Scharfs gave their name, they were informed, 
to their astonishment, as if it were a pleasant bit of 
news, that they, too, would be put under arrest. They 
wished to know of what they were guilty. 

“My dear fellow,” one of the green-coats laughed 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 139 


at Anton, who cast a withering look upon him, “ you 
yourself probably know of what you are guilty. At 
any rate you’re in good company.” He nodded toward 
Schwabe and Bohemian Joe. 

Schwabe cowered. But Bohemian Joe, fearlessly 
looking the Austrian administrators of the law straight 
in the eye, remarked in a hasty, not exactly well-bred 
tone, that even if he had done a dirty trick or two — 
and with God’s help he intended to do another dirty 
trick or two—they wouldn’t string him up, because 
he had spent an hour at prayer-meeting. 

“Prayer-meeting? Fudge!” said the green-coat. 

But the Scharfs launched out against him. Talking 
excitedly and interrupting each other, they spoke of all 
sorts of apocalyptic things of which the green-coats had 
‘never before heard. 'The very ordinary occurrence of 
Quint’s sermon in the schoolroom they magnified into an 
event of momentous significance. Threatening, beg- 
ging, and shouting, it seemed almost as if they were try- 
ing to convert those honest, unsuspecting officials, who 
looked at each other with a smile that said, “‘ These peo- 
ple do not seem to belong in the penitentiary, but in the 
insane asylum.” 

“ Well, well, we know all about it now,” said one of the 
green-coats. 


CHAPTER VII 


Tue policemen arrested Emanuel because he was sus- 
pected of being a fugitive from justice. Apparently 
the Prussian authorities had informed them that Quint 
had reappeared and disappeared again in the company 
of Bohemian Joe. 

That was why they put handcuffs on him when they 
seized him in the bedroom, and said, ‘‘ Here’s the ring- 
leader! ” 

Both the Scharfs vociferously insisted upon being 
handcuffed also. But they could not create the sus- 
picion of being fugitives from justice, and to their great 
distress they had to walk unbound to the Prussian fron- 
tier under the guard of the second officer and at some 
distance behind Quint. 

Though the gendarmes tried to use the less frequented 
roads, they could not avoid passing a few huts, where, 
now that evening was approaching, there were lively 
signs of holiday-making—the slamming of doors, 
the calling of bar-maids, and the squeaking of fiddles. 
Here the passing by of a queer, tall, thin, giraffe-like 
man in handcuffs guarded by a gendarme could not go 
unnoticed. The way was long and on the whole diffi- 
cult. And at the end of an hour the Austrian officer 
found himself by no means alone with his prisoner. It 
was impossible to chase away the troops of children. 
Men and women from huts here and there, who belonged 
to those whose superstition inclined them in favour of 

140 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 141 


the poor prisoner, had also joined the procession. 
Groups of sweating excursionists brought up the rear. 
Some were going the same direction at any rate, and 
the others were willing to turn from their way for the 
sake of following the criminal. The second gendarme 
walked at a great distance behind. With his two un- 
fettered, and therefore evidently less dangerous, law- 
breakers, he attracted a smaller public. 

A torturing bitterness welled up in the Fool’s soul. 
He had been filled with the pure spirit of the Buble, 
with a pure love of man. And now again, as so often 
before, the world’s scorn broke over him. ‘This time 
it was all the more inconceivable since there seemed to 
be absolutely no reason for imposing the ignominy of 
handcuffs upon him. They led him along as if he were 
a ravening beast. His anger nearly burst forth at the 
trampling behind him, at the talking and shouting, and 
the conjectures whether he was being arrested for rob- 
bery, assault, or murder. The people put no bridle on 
their tongues. And poor Quint, whose worst fault was 
some shyness of work — of course we know that idle- 
ness is the mother of every vice — had to listen to frank 
remarks concerning his high forehead, his pointed nose, 
his red beard, his long arms and legs, and even his 
freckles. Some were of the opinion that he had com- 
mitted murder by poisoning. 

But he felt if he were to cry out, “ I am not! ” the cry 
would come echoing back at him like pelting stones. If 
he were to say, “I am a peaceful disciple of the Sav- 
iour,” and nothing else, the only response would be wild, 
hideous laughter. And if he were to utter the whole 
truth, tell them that compared with them he was the 
free man and not the prisoner, the pardoned and not the 


142 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


condemned criminal, he knew there would scarcely be 
sharp stones enough lying about on the ground for furi- 
ous hands to stone God with. 

This thought brought him comfort. The incom- 
parable peace of profound composure descended upon 
him. The trampling and chattering behind him 
touched him as little as the rolling of stones down a hiill- 
side, the murmur of a brook, the trotting of horses, or 
the soughing of wind. It seemed to him that those be- 
hind him were images of bronze, or stone, or clay, dead 
men without life! Men forgotten, abandoned, and 
buried, who, perhaps, when the allotted time came, 
would be awakened by the loving breath of the Creator 
and would become what he himself was. 

The divine joy in his soul gleamed brighter and 
brighter, so that sometimes he involuntarily drew his 
bluish coat about him as if to hide the light within him. 
And then he thought, “ I am a light! Why do they not 
see that I shine? Verily, because their eyes are irrev- 
ocably sealed with the cataract of deadness. Why do 
they not see that they are doing me unspeakable good 
by causing me to experience the same that Christ expe- 
rienced, Christ whom I imitate, whom I will establish 
more and more firmly in my inward being. With their 
hardness, their scoffing, their ignorance and indifference, 
do they not make me more like the Saviour, so that I 
have become the same as He in one part of my being, 
in my experience, in my suffering of sorrows? Do they 
not understand that he is walking next to me on 
this way of the cross? I should like to kiss the hands 
of the gendarme who leads me along this and no other 
way. Do they not observe the unheard-of — that for 
long moments I was so engrossed in the Saviour and He 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 143 


in me, that He Himself in my body, wearing handcuffs, 
was walking in front of them?” 


* * * * * * * * 


At the Pichlerbaude Quint was handed over to the 
German police. When the German gendarme saw him, 
he burst into a jovial laugh, and the gentlemen from 
Austria and the troop of followers joined in. 

“It’s time you got a hair-cut,” he remarked to 
Quint, whose hair had grown to some length during his 
hermit’s life. 

This bit of humour produced a still louder laugh, be- 
cause it looked as if the strapping horseback-rider had 
come just to act as Quint’s barber, and as if Quint had 
come just to have his hair cut. 

The laughter had not yet wholly died down when a 
boy of about twelve pushed close up to Quint and held 
out a hunk of rye bread spread with rendered fat. 
The Fool, engrossed in his thoughts, looked at him, then 
suddenly woke up again to the life about him.  Visi- 
bly touched by the boy’s intention, he tried to put his 
right hand in blessing on his head, forgetting he wore 
handcuffs. It was a pitiful gesture. The boy natu- 
rally interpreted it as the poor sinner’s attempt to take 
the bread, and he suddenly realised that in his hearty 
impulse he had forgotten the very thing that had 
especially stirred his pity, the fetters on a man’s hands. 
So his good deed, instead of passing off quickly, was 
protracted and aroused the very notice he dreaded. 
The blood suddenly mounted to his face. But it was 
only for an instant that he stood at a loss. He was 
quick to notice the ragged side-pocket in the prisoner’s 
coat and as quick to stick the bread in. With that the 


144 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


soles of two bare brown feet went twinkling over the 
upland meadow and disappeared. 

The bystanders laughed again, but this time there was 
a shamefaced attempt to cut the laughter short. Some 
left the crowd and walked away. Others even began to 
collect money for Quint after the gendarmes had ex- 
changed papers. 

“Take it, silly ass,” the German gendarme shouted, 
and with seeming roughness unloosened Quint’s hand- 
cuffs. 

Was it that Quint’s soul was still dazzled by the ray 
of eternal goodness that God had sent down through a 
little boy, and he did not see what they proffered him? 
Or did he think he would stain his hands by taking money 
from these strolling excursionists? However that may 
be, his open palms fell limply at his sides. 

During the descent into the Hirschberger valley the 
Scharf brothers walked alongside Quint. The gen- 
darme had no mistrust of them. He lighted one of the 
cigars to which he had helped himself from the cigar- 
cases that had been held out to him, and comfortably 
leading his horse by the reins he let the prisoners walk 
in front of him without concern. 

The brothers, of course, were happy to be with Quint 
again. But they were all a-quiver with indignation 
at what had happened to them, especially to Quint. 
Anton Scharf was the more excited. He paid no 
heed to the steepness of the road, and every now and 
then stumbled. He shook his clenched fist and threat- 
ened and cursed the children of the world. 

“They do no good! They are afraid and see not! 
They have ears and hear not! The curse of God which 
is upon them maketh them deaf and blind!” 

Until they were permitted to join Quint the brothers 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 145 


had discussed and weighed many matters, chiefly the 
measures to be taken against the powers of the infatu- 
ated world. Martin now asked Quint’s sanction for 
what they wished to do. It was impossible, they 
thought, to keep Quint and themselves in custody a long 
time. When they were set free, they would go to a 
certain pious lady of noble birth, a very old, very rich, 
and very benevolent unmarried lady known and respected 
in the whole district as the Gurau Lady, and ask her 
to take Quint under her protection. After she had 
done so and after Quint through her great influence 
was allowed to follow his peaceful way undisturbed, they 
would form a community of sympathisers, a community 
of the worthiest, with Quint as their leader. 

“The imitation of Christ,” Quint replied, “ must 
be taken up each for himself, and the Saviour alone can 
be the leader. I shall never forget myself so far as to 
presume to be first anywhere in the world where the 
Saviour would have been the last.” 

They reached a place where the gendarme intended 
to rest, and suddenly they heard his thunderous 
“ Halt!’ The prisoners stood still and waited for him. 
He came up clearing his throat and cursing good-na- 
turedly, and seated himself on a bench placed there for 
the use of tourists. 

“ Sit down, boys. Take it easy. We've got a good 
long stretch ahead of us yet,” he said. “If the devil 
hadn’t got into you, I shouldn’t have to be scram- 
bling around in the mountains on a holiday. With my 
avoirdupois that’s no joke, you know. Why, you’re 
making faces as sour as a lemon!” He gave them a 
searching look of his small eyes, smiled broadly, and 
shook his helmed head. “I wish I knew what’s got 
into you. I think you’ve turned crazy. Once I had 


146 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to arrest another fellow like you. But he did end up 
in the insane asylum. He wanted to make me believe 
he was going to ride into heaven in a coach and pair. 
He had a certificate from somebody or other saying so 
black on white. And the coach was to be of fire. 
What’s the matter with you? Do you think the world’s 
coming to an end day after to-morrow? ‘Till then, woe! 
Many a drop of whiskey will be drunk before then! 
Don’t turn the people’s heads. You’re driving those 
poor folk up there in the huts absolutely sane. Who 
put such nonsense into you?. When I was in barracks, 
I went to church often enough. I know what religion 
is, and who our Lord Jesus Christ is, better than you, 
I fancy. I’ve never come across such idiocy.” 

“ Sir,” said Martin Scharf, “we have done nothing 
except what the spirit of the Lord commanded us to 
do. We should bear testimony to Jesus Christ! This 
very day. To-morrow it may be too late. Yea, if we 
delay one hour, how do we know that we have not missed 
for all eternity?” 

“ Great Lord, man, do you think we’ve been waiting 
just for you? Don’t we bear testimony to Jesus Christ 
every Sunday in every church — every Sunday, I tell 
you? AmJaheathen? Am I not as good a Christian 
as you?” 

Anton Scharf clenched his teeth, and looked at the 
sergeant grimly before bursting out in his unconsidered 
way: 3 

‘There are those who bear false witness against Je- 
sus Christ. There are enough and too many such, who 
call themselves and others Christians, yet are nothing 
else than vain children of the world.” 

Quint waved his hand to him, and Anton desisted. 


a 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 147 


Observing that the sergeant’s eyes were fixed upon him 
with some interest, Quint began to speak quietly: 

“We should none of us presume to call ourselves 
Christians. The Christian is Christ. There is only one 
Christ, Christ the Saviour. Wherever else He is, He is 
hidden! What would the world be if Christ were in 
thee, in a thousand, and a hundred thousand, yea, in a 
million others? That would be the kingdom! Chris- 
tian means to be nothing else than Christ. And who 
dare say, ‘I am Christ’ ?” 

The gendarme looked somewhat amazed. 

His horse had several times thrust his nose against 
him impatiently, and he now stood up and gave the sig- 
nal to move on. 

“Forward! Don’t use tiredness as a pretext,” he 
said. ‘You talk a lot of upsidedown things. You 
yourselves don’t know what you blabber. Shoemaker, 
stick to your last. Don’t make the people rebellious. 
No one will keep you from going to church, for all I 
care, twice every Sunday — too much for me, though.” 

“But I say unto you, sergeant,” exclaimed Anton 
Scharf, “‘that in this place is one greater than the 
church and the temple! ” 

This was one of the many Bible citations with which 
Anton was familiar. His sickly eyes again gleamed 
with that mad belief which was the chief source of all 
later misfortunes. The gendarme looked at the coarse, 
bearded face as one regards a person whose sanity one 
is justified in doubting. 

“When a man begins to rattle like that,’ he ob- 
served, “it’s usually his upper story that goes first.” 


* a * % * * * * 


148 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


They walked the rest of the way in the same order 
as before. The brothers again tried to win Quint over 
to their idea of a community. But Emanuel, disquieted 
by that gleam in Anton’s eyes, resisted still more vigor- 
ously than before. He even grew angry, and emphat- 
ically said that nothing was farther from his mind than 
to add to the legions of idle phrase-mongers, or furnish 
substance for any superstition in this world. 

“Tam reconciled to God. I was reconciled to Him 
by Jesus Christ. And if I am kept here on earth to 
testify to anything by my deeds, it is to this my recon- 
ciliation to God and my reconciliation to men. I am 
reconciled to them. I am not angry at my poor breth-_ 
ren and sisters on this earth. Take heed that ye, too, 
be reconciled. He that is reconciled may preach recon- 
ciliation. Why take ye thought for me? Am I not 
worthy to suffer what my brethren and sisters suffer? 
Am I not worthy to be a man among men? The Son 
of man is aman among men. Go home. Follow Jesus, 
and when you think of me, think not of me, but of the 
Son of man. Think of the Saviour and pray that He 
may become one with you. But henceforth let no one 
inquire for me!” 


* * * * * * * * 


For the night the prisoners were placed in the police 
lock-up at Hainsdorf, the brothers in a room together, 
the Fool in Christ in a room by himself. As he lay in 
the dark, damp cell with bread and water at his side he 
dreamed a dream, from which he soon awoke. Then 
in a state of profound beatitude he remained awake un- 
til the morning. 

Quint dreamed the Saviour Himself had come to him 
in prison. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 149 


To understand all the different sorts and degrees of 
dreams is to know the human soul more profoundly than 
we have yet learned to know it. Emanuel Quint’s dream 
was of those that are as real as any event in our so- 
called waking actual life. If the policeman who had 
the key to his cell had appeared before Quint, he could 
not have been distincter, more in the body, more real 
than the Saviour. We dream smells, faces, poems, 
words. We hear stories, we hear music, we feel that 
we touch things. Sometimes we preserve the memory 
of such sense impressions in a dream for decades, a mem- 
ory that is clear-cut and vivid, while many more im- 
portant events of our waking life fade from our minds 
beyond recall. 

Quint heard the faint footfall of the Saviour, he saw 
Him enter through the creaking gate with slightly 
bowed head. He saw a strange pale sheen about the 
Saviour’s blond hair, no stronger than the reflection of 
lamplight. It cast a faint gleam upon the damp walls 
and the plastering of the arch over the doorway. He 
knew that thus and not otherwise looked the Saviour, 
the Son of man, the son of Mary, the King with the 
crown of thorns, who had no form nor comeliness, and 
was esteemed stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
He recognised each feature of His face. Thus looked 
His deep eyes, thus the reddish brows arched over them, 
thus the freckles lay about the corners of His eyes and 
about His fine, quivering nostrils. Thus He moved His 
arm and raised His hand, and gently ran His long, 
slender fingers through His curly pointed beard. And 
on the back of His hand there was a frightful mark, 
where the rusty nails had been driven through to pin Him 
to the cross. Dark drops of blood oozed from the 
wound. 


150 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


And marks also were on His feet, which were rough 
and dusty, as if He had come from a long journey made 
barefoot. A power emanated from Him which struck 
Quint to the ground as with a storm of compassion and 
love. He could do nothing but kiss and kiss again 
both those dear feet and shed a flood of tears over them. 
And now Emanuel heard a soft grave voice: 

* Brother Emanuel, lovest thou me? ” 

“Yea,” said Emanuel, “ more than myself.” 

And again the voice said: 7 

** Brother Emanuel, lovest thou me??? And when the 
dreamer again asseverated his love, the voice added, 
“Then, Emanuel Quint, I will remain with thee for- 
ever.” 

Just as real as his sensations had been a few mo- 
ments before when the key had grated in the lock and the 
head and hand of the newcomer appeared in the door- 
way, and Emanuel thought another poor sinner was 
being led in, so real was his feeling a few minutes later, 
that he was transported into the seventh heaven. And 
when he raised his head and spread his arms, the thing 
finally happened that gave his dream the sanctity of a 
miracle. 

When Quint and the form of the Saviour opened their 
arms to each other like long-separated, loving brothers, 
Quint felt the Saviour’s body, the Saviour’s whole being 
enter into him and penetrate every part. The expe- 
rience was inconceivable, marvellous in its absolute 
reality. For it seemed as if the mystic marriage took 
place heart and soul, tangibly, in every nerve, every 
pulse-beat, every drop of blood, and Jesus passed into 
His disciple and dissolved in him. 


* * * * * # * 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 151 


The next morning the sheriff set the two weavers, 
Martin and Anton Scharf, free. Quint, however, was 
detained in custody. He was to be transferred to his 
home parish. 

_At an inn nearby the Scharf brothers met Bohemian 
Joe and Schwabe, who had followed the traces of the 
gendarme, and afterward all four of them under 
Schwabe’s guidance struck across the fields to a some- 
what distant village. It was a place where there were 
many poor weavers and basket-makers. From of old it 
was the home of a pietistic sectarianism which flourished 
unnoticed by the surrounding world. Schwabe had 
kindred here, a married sister and her family. 
When he and his companions entered her house, the 
pale, anxious-looking woman seemed reticent, as if she 
were standing on guard in the entry and could not 
admit anyone to the living-room. 

The fact was that a blacksmith by the name of John 
aus dem Oberdorfe was holding prayer-meeting in the 
room. <A small congregation of pious Christians were 
celebrating the so-called third holiday. 

Before the new spirit produced by their contact with 
Quint came over Bohemian Joe and Schwabe, they had 
been inclined to poke fun at the little circle. Yet it 
was in the full knowledge that they would find the peo- 
ple at prayer-meeting that the two smugglers had 
brought the Scharf brothers here. After some parley 
Schwabe’s sister went in to call her husband, a small, yel- 
low, half-naked man, and in a few minutes he led the 
four men into the little assembly. 

The congregation was just then on its knees offering 
up a long silent prayer. The motes in the morning 
sun, shining in through three small windows, danced 


over aged grey heads, young blond heads, and bald 


152 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


heads. Suddenly an old toothless woman arose and be- 
gan to splutter unintelligible words in an almost unin- 
telligible language. Her ecstasy the congregation of 
enthusiasts took to be the “ speaking with tongues ” 
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. When the old 
woman had exhausted herself weeping and groaning and 
calling upon Jesus, she was relieved by a man who 
prayed aloud and supplicated God for the Holy Ghost. 
After he was done Martin Scharf rose from the ground 
—he and the other three had thrown themselves to the 
floor when they entered — and spoke in a tone so new 
to the people, that the whole congregation sat up and 
listened. 

He was not loud in his speech, but what he said was 
in the tone of giving positive information. 

*“‘ Sing,” he said, “ rejoice! The Lord, the Saviour 
is with us. The time is past for the beating of breasts, 
the sighing, the weeping and supplicating. The prom- 
ise hath been fulfilled. Have we not heard his voice? 
Have we not seen the bridegroom with our eyes? The 
bride sitteth in mourning before the bridegroom cometh. 
But when the bridegroom draweth nigh, she is full of 
gladness. I bring joyous tidings. No one before me 
hath come to you with a message like unto mine. Jesus 
Christ hath arisen! ” 

No one in the small assemblage marvelled at the mes- 
sage. Too often had the joyous tidings been pro- 
claimed to them. Yet they all trembled, and what 
caused them to tremble was the conviction quivering in 
the speaker’s voice. It was so strong that they were 
as greatly moved by the well-known words as by the 
communication of some great piece of news. 

“Ask no more,” said Scharf breaking off, “ but let 
each hold himself in readiness. Let each put on a wed- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 153 


ding garment. Let each listen day and night and 
watch lest he be caught asleep when the call of judg- 
ment sounds.” 

And he commanded the women and children to go 
home, and the more intelligent men to remain, in order 
to discuss with them the mystery at which he had 
merely hinted. ‘They seated themselves about the table, 
and he disclosed to them how Emanuel Quint, a man in 
his opinion endowed with the full strength of the apos- 
tolic spirit, had appeared on earth. At first he instinc- 
tively avoided putting a greater tax upon _ their 
credulity by telling them what was his and his brother’s 
idea of the poor Fool in Christ. On the other hand he 
spoke of signs and wonders, and the two men poured 
out the whole chronicle of the past few days, with ad- 
ditions and fantastic embellishments. Martin thought 
he was telling the simple truth. And so did Anton 
when he represented events as still more miraculous. 
Schwabe and Bohemian Joe also added their share. In 
their pleasure in the unusual they vivaciously exag- 
gerated their experience with Quint. 

At the end of an hour it was settled among all pres- 
ent that Quint had freed the father of the Scharfs from 
his terrible sufferings by merely touching him, and had 
driven out the devil that had tormented Martha Schu- 
bert. It was proved that a paralyzed woman had 
touched his coat in front of Schubert’s hut and had 
gone thence with sound limbs. No one doubted that 
the centenarian whom a number of them had known, had 
received pardon for her sins from Quint, and that Quint 
had set her free from life. 

Schwabe’s brother-in-law Zumpt and the little group 
of co-religionists, needless to say, were all the very pic- 
ture of extreme credulity. In their eyes there was an ex- 


154 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


pression of vain, endless hunger for justice, an expres- 
sion of long, long waiting. Sometimes it was replaced by 
an expression of astonishment and puzzlement at the 
life assigned them, which gave way again to the heart- 
rending look of waiting. And fear was also in their 
eyes. For the small earnings of these poor people are 
by no means assured, and have to be wrung from the 
looms by work at a frightful speed. The gruesome 
ghost of want stands at their back lashing them on mer- 
cilessly. Round about them they see strangers and 
enemies, who stand by while they overtax their strength, 
and look on with lowering, or, at best, with cold, sar- 
donic looks. Thus, their dread assumes vast, mystic 
forms. Everywhere the poor people see — and not in 
their fancy, but actually — destructive powers crouch- 
ing like beasts of prey waiting for the moment when 
their victims will sink down in exhaustion if only for a 
second. Then their awful doom is sealed. 

Timid, therefore, will-less, and driven, the people 
were at the mercy of the extravagant representations of 
the Scharf brothers. They had nothing, good or bad, 
to say in opposition. Though accustomed constantly 
to struggle for an existence that was already lost, they 
never failed to clutch at the straw as often as it was 
held out to them, instead of the saving beam, in the 
dark waters of their life. Somebody has said that 
hope is man’s second soul. He who offered that other, 
loftier, lighter soul nourishment was always highly wel- 
come to them — how could it be otherwise? — even the 
criminal, the liar, the charlatan. But here were two 
men who spoke with wild energy, with an unmistakable, 
mystic rapture of an event that was almost the fulfil- 
ment of all hope. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 155 


In the people, that is, in the vast majority of the 
people, especially the under strata, lives the ineradi- 
cable, not always avowed, hope in a man, or in a day. 
And now that man, that day had come, or, at least, 
were nigh at hand. Pale-faced, their jaws trembling, 
the prematurely aged men sat about the narrators and 
drank in their words. The world outside their village 
and the pictures of the Bible was not a reality to them. 
It was a place for nightmare visions. But above that 
world, on pure, untouched heights attainable only after 
death, sat enthroned Christ the Saviour. And they 
really believed in Christ. In those striking-looking old 
weavers’ heads belief was still belief in its innermost. 
That is, it was not investigation, doubt, or knowledge. 
And among the things to which their faith adhered 
firmly was the second coming of the Lord and the estab- 
lishment of the millennium on earth. And now, accord- 
ing to the convincing words of the two strangers, the 
Lord’s coming and the millennium were really nigh at 
hand. 

The little weaver’s room was the scene of a truly 
touching transport of joy. After it was over Martin 
Scharf said with an air of decision indicating a previ- 
ously formed resolve: 

** Now listen, and prepare to consider what I have to 
propose.” 

He unfolded his plan of a community as he had put it 
to Emanuel Quint the day before. Though he had not 
got Quint’s sanction, they were to recognise the Fool in 
Christ as their head and serve him by works and deeds. 

They declared themselves ready on the spot for such 
acommunity. And their ardour did not cool when Mar- 
tin started a collection. Boxes and chests were opened, 


156 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


and pennies and even mark pieces were drawn from their 
scant hoardings stowed in out-of-the-way corners. The 
brothers scrupulously made a note of all the contribu- 
tions in a little, well-thumbed blue book. 


* * * + *, *. * 


CHAPTER VIII 


EMANUEL was confined in the lockup of the chief town 
in his county, charged with vagrancy, quack practices, 
and repeatedly creating public disturbances. The hear- 
ing caused the judge more embarrassment than it did 
Emanuel. His questions failed to elicit from the ac- 
cused any incriminating statements, and he was unable 
otherwise to prove his guilt. 

“Did you not say you could heal the sick even if 
they suffered from incurable diseases? ”? was the judge’s 
first question. 

“No,” Quint answered. 

“Do you not try to make ignorant people believe 
that you have come down on earth on a sort of special 
divine mission? Are you willing to uphold this state- 
ment in my presence? ” 

“No,” again. 

Asked why he did not work in his father’s shop, he 
replied that he knew — and had obtained this knowledge 
from the Bible — that to care for the sustenance and 
the needs of the body is not nearly so important as to 
care for the eternal salvation of the soul. . 

In brief, the judge was utterly at a loss what to do 
with the queer man, whose answers were direct, simple, 
and convincing. Finally he brought up the charge of 
mendicancy. When Quint calmly replied that he never 
touched money, that all material goods was sinful, the 
judge was taken aback. “Oh,” he said, and brought 
the hearing to an abrupt close. 

157 


158 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Two days later Quint found himself under observa- 
tion in a neighbouring insane asylum. The assistant 
physician asked him very strange questions. For in- 
stance, “ How old are you?” ‘ What date is it to- 
day?” and so on. He gave him an example in arithme- 
tic to solve, got him to tell the time, and led him to 
the window to see if his pupils would contract in the 
light — which they properly did. 

Suddenly, as if in an access of pity and humanity, he 
took a bright silver mark from his purse and put it 
into Emanuel’s hand. The money dropped from the 
Fool’s palm and rolled on the floor. At the physician’s 
order, it is true, he picked it up, but under no circum- 
stances would he accept and keep it. The physician’s 
every artifice failed. He threatened, he laughed, he 
pretended to be angry and insulted. Quint remained 
firm. 

He asked Quint why he refused to take money. 

“I would not be richer by a farthing than our Sav- 
iour was on earth,” Quint replied, and seemed to want 
to say more, but before he could do so, he was led off 
by an attendant, and the physician turned to a shriek- 
ing woman, whom several nurses in white aprons had the 
greatest difficulty in holding down. 

The alienist’s opinion as stated in his report was that 
Quint was an eccentric type, but on the whole must 
be declared sound. At most he was somewhat simple, 
and therefore could scarcely be held accountable for 
his actions. So it would be advisable to place him 
under the guardianship of his parents and keep him 
under strict surveillance. 

* % * % * # * “ 


A few days later Quint was dismissed with a grave 
warning. A gendarme escorted him home, to the de- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 159 


cayed little hut where his mother, his stepfather, and 
several children still dragged on their existence. 

The long dreary pilgrimage through familiar regions 
was one of the greatest martyrdoms that Quint, the 
Fool in Christ, had ever had to undergo. He knew what 
awaited him. There was no other road he would rather 
not have travelled, no other place he would rather not 
have gone to. It was a cold, rainy day. The officer 
led him across the square past the church in front of 
which Quint had preached his first foolish sermon ex- 
horting the people to repent. 

It was the weekly market-day. Many of the market- 
women sitting under broad awnings selling vegetables, 
cherries, and farm products of every description, recog- 
nised Quint. The gendarme tried to hurry by as 
quickly as possible. But before he and and his ward 
could disappear from view behind the trees of the old 
city, a hailstorm of pointed remarks descended upon 
Emanuel. 

** Why, look, there’s Quint. Say, officer, did he have 
the itch in his fingers? Well, the Lord have mercy on 
you when you get back to your father,” cried an old 
woman, almost stifling in her fat, who sold stock and 
fuchsia in pots. “I offered the starving dog his board 
and a mark a week,” she kept on quacking. ‘* Do you 
think he’d take it? No, not he! MHe’d have to help 
pull my little cart. Not such an awful load, is it? 
*Specially with my dog harnessed to it besides. Look 
at my dog there. Don’t you think he can draw the 
cart by himself? But no, the chump, the lousy beg- 
gar wouldn’t have it. He’d rather loaf. And that’s 
where he’s got to now. What else could you expect? ” 

A driver stationed with his beer waggon and team at 
the edge of the market-place shouted, “ Hello there, 


160 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


thief!” And when Quint passed close by, he spat 
cherry stones, as if by accident, straight in his face. 
The market-women roared with laughter. 

Even the trees afforded no shelter. Everywhere 
Quint was greeted with “ Well, I declare,” “ Ahem! ” 
and the like. Some of the remarks had a caustic sting 
to them. When the city was left behind, Quint breathed 
a sigh of relief, though it was no pleasure to walk bare- 
foot in the rain and mud of the roadside, never resting, 
but pushing ahead from one rustling poplar to the 
other. 

His martyrdom soon began again. The road grew 
liveher. Waggons trundled by on the way to town. 
Most of the drivers — peasants hauling wood to market, 
the butcher boy, the miller’s apprentice, and others — 
knew Quint. Seeing him in the company of the man 
of law they said things to him by no means flattering. 
A few of them, not all, had heard of his mad prank 
in front of the church. Others knew he had disap- 
peared. 

“Did you bring a bag of gold home with you?”. 
“Did they make you minister of the big church in the 
city? ” they called,to him in voices that could be heard 
above the clatter of the waggons and the noise of the 
rain. 

The poor man, a man of sorrows and already ac- 
quainted with not a little grief, asked himself why his 
fellow-men had held in store for him such intensifica- 
tion of his sufferings, for what mysterious reason they 
all harboured such anger against him, seeing that he 
never hurt anyone, not even in his thoughts, and was 
merely trying quietly to follow in the footsteps of the 
Saviour, whom they all pretended to revere. Though 
his heart overflowed with pity and love, and a power al- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 161 


most beyond his control impelled him, as it were, to 
force God to receive these men into His spirit and 
grace, and though he would cheerfully shed his own 
blood for all, he was being transported like a danger- 
ous wild animal, and heaped with contumely like an 
enemy at last secured in chains. 

In this familiar neighbourhood poor Emanuel was 
overcome by a fearful growing dread. The gendarme, 
who was utterly indifferent, did not suspect, not even re- 
motely, when he saw Quint move his lips, that the fervent 
cry, “ My God, my God!” was ready to burst from his 
tortured soul. But Quint’s dismay increased. It 
seemed to him that with each step he must descend lower 
and lower into a dark, subterranean torture chamber, 
where all the hope, all the faith, all the love of the 
ages were extinguished and Jesus Christ was utterly 
powerless, and his soul writhed in doubt. 

This peculiar mood that now mastered the strange 
religious enthusiast narrowed him, and, as it were, 
caused a backward evolution in him. The world of 
youth is inextricably bound to the circle of sense im- 
pressions received at home. This world, even if it has 
sunk for a time into the background, can be revived 
again by the old impressions and, according to circum- 
stances, become a source of torment or of bliss. 

Emanuel had grown up under the refined scorn of 
those around him. Scorn seemed to him to be the 
natural heritage of man. Without ever having made 
much of it, he suffered unspeakably from all the forms 
of contempt with which he met daily, hourly, inside and 
outside his home. He had felt the degradation so 
keenly that when he was only about nine years old he 
already came to the conclusion that scorn of one’s 
neighbour is one of the gravest, most awful sins. Its 


162 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


immediate consequence was scorn of self, a scorn which 
more than once nearly drove him beyond earthly loneli- 
ness into a profounder, eternal loneliness — into 
death. 

In one of those dangerous moments the form of the 
Saviour had come close to him, and had given him the 
miraculous solace of the divine Son of man. Thence- 
forth He became the sole friend of the poor, disdained 
boy. What wonder that he, the contemned, attached 
himself with consuming intensity to his kind friend 
and comforter? 

For many years not even Emanuel’s mother knew of 
the divine communion that her son enjoyed in secret. 
Since this communion was held not with a man of flesh 
and blood, but only with a form that acquired a fan- 
tastic life through a laboriously deciphered book, per- 
haps the dream world thus forcefully created became the 
foundation of Emanuel’s subsequent foolishness with 
its fateful consequences. 

When a mere child Emanuel took the Bible to bed 
with him. A Herrnhut colporter had given him a copy, 
the same that he still carried with him. The cover of 
the little book was almost gone, worn threadbare by the 
numerous fervent kisses he impressed upon it in the 
belief that he was kissing the hands of Jesus. Often 
his boyish visions went so far that his mother, who had 
borne him soon after her marriage with the carpenter, 
though he was not the carpenter’s son, was embarrassed 
by the remarks he made in the presence of the whole 
family. They were unintelligible words which made her 
fear for her son’s sanity. 

Often, for hours at a time, even amid the din and 
bustle of the carpenter’s shop, the boy saw nothing but 
the Saviour and his way of sorrow. And during such 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 163 


visions, especially when he clearly beheld the awful 
agonies of the Crucifixion, before and after the nail- 
ing to the cross, a cry would burst from him. 

“ Mother, mother, they want to stab him,” he would 
scream, and thereby bring down upon himself laughter, 
ridicule, blows, and other punishments, and redouble the 
mother’s anxiety for this child of pain and sorrow. 


* * * * * a * % 


They reached Emanuel’s village, Giersdorf. A wide 
brook, with polluted bed and water, lined with clusters 
of old trees, ran through the middle. Though the 
gendarme avoided the main road on the other side of 
the brook and kept to the so-called small side of the vil- 
lage, he had not passed the second or third little home- 
stead —* stalls”? they were called there——before he 
was noticed. Soon Emanuel again heard those horrible 
voices, which rose above the noise of the rain and went 
from house to house. 

Since he could remember, those voices racked him 
with their biting scoffery. He wanted to turn his 
thoughts away from the threatening present, growing 
more and more hideous, and he looked up into the leafy 
arches of the mountain ash and maples, which dripped 
and rustled softly in the rain. But the abuse and insult 
did not abate. The Saviour Himself, it seemed, had 
abandoned him. 

At first only children followed, later some idle, chat- 
tering women. The things that reached Emanuel’s ears 
were an approximate summary of the stories, mostly of 
a malicious nature, fabricated after his disappearance. 
He ignored all the remarks addressed to him, whether 
mischievous, spiteful, or merely impertinent. He did 
not answer even his acquaintances. One of the well-to- 


164 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


do peasants standing in the brick gateway of his yard 
cracking his whip, called out: 

“ Hello there, red-head, still got your freckles, I 
see!” Exchanging smiling salutations with the officer, 
he swaggered up with an air of importance, and, half 
in jest, though none too gently, gave Emanuel a cut of 
his whip, and added insult to injury by saying, “ Just 
wait. Your father’s got a cow-hide ready for you.” 

In such moments the love of man dried up almost 
completely in Quint’s soul. But so also did the hatred, 
the indignation, which had several times striven to assert 
themselves. Resistless, will-less in body and soul, and 
in the end scarcely knowing how he walked, or where he 
was going, he abandoned himself to the dread of the 
hour, and so finally reached his parents’ house. 

Followed by a crowd of people, the gendarme directly 
behind him, he reached the door almost unconscious. 
His father appeared upon the threshold. He was an 
ordinary-looking man of medium height, with a face 
unnaturally pale and covered with a dirty-grey beard. 
Without so much as saying a word, he promptly struck 
Quint several fearful blows on his face. Next the step- 
father’s senseless rage vented itself in a hail of curses, 
oaths, and foul abuse. 

Quint’s mother interceded. She threw herself be- 
tween him and the Fool, but he drew her away from 
Emanuel with one pull, and again made for him with 
his fists. 

“J will show you, you damned cur, you loafer,” 
he said. “I will teach you all the ten commandments.” 

Here the gendarme interposed, and tried to put a 
stop to the man’s brutality, but not with an extraordi- 
nary display of energy. Perhaps he thought a 
fatherly lesson of the sort was quite in conformity with 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 165 


the instructions he had been ordered to leave. However, 
he did finally pull off the carpenter, who was now quite 
beside himself. His victim was bleeding in several 
places. 

The carpenter protested that no one, not even the 
gendarme, had a right to prevent him from punish- 
ing the scoundrel who bore his name. It was he who 
had made that bastard respectable, yes, he, the step- 
father. Though it was none of his affair, he had 
brought him up and fed him all these many years at 
a great deal of trouble and expense to himself. 

“Vermin,” he cried, “I wish the life had been 
knocked out of you a thousand times! ” 

And so he continued to proclaim to the assembled 
villagers his own magnanimity and the shame of his 
wife and son. Frightened by the noise, the sparrows 
almost dropped from the roofs, the pigeons belonging 
to the next house flew up in the air, and all the dogs 
in the neighbourhood set up a loud barking. 

Finally the carpenter shouted into the grey twilight 
of the rainy day: ) 

** Get along with you inside the house. [’Il kill you.” 

People of his stamp — Adolf Quint, the carpenter, 
was generally idle and greatly addicted to drink — are 
ever ready with a threat of that sort. The reason 
such threats are rarely executed is that it is not so 
easy as is commonly supposed to transfer a man from 


life to death. 


CHAPTER IX 


Tuer youngest of Quint’s stepbrothers, Gustav, ®& 
boy of twelve, was secretly devoted to him. Soon 
after his return his father insisted on Emanuel’s work- 
ing in the dingy, wofully neglected shop, and Gustav 
helped Emanuel in every way he could. But August, 
the best worker in the family, had no fondness for him, 
though Emanuel had done his best to make him under- 
stand those peculiar, exotic traits in his nature which 
angered his brother. 

Emanuel at the bench was indeed a figure so incon- 
gruous as to puzzle a thinking observer and amuse oF 
disgust a skilful workman. August was not amused. 
He was disgusted. With the ethics of his own pro- 
ficiency he felt justified in continually taking Emanuel 
to task for his indolence and awkwardness. 

By no stretch of the imagination could the Quint 
family be accounted prosperous. It was the mother 
who saved them from utter destitution by doing the 
wash for several families, the pastor’s, the teacher’s, 
and some landowners’. Though she tried as best she 
could to defend Emanuel against her husband, she 
naturally remonstrated with him on every occasion. 
In addition to his mother’s chiding he had to bear the 
captiousness of his brother August, who almost seemed 
to be jealous of him, and that though Emanuel had 
come home escorted by a gendarme. August was al- 
ready twenty-four. Yet, for his mother’s sake, he had 
remained at home, which was contrary to custom. 


166 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 167 


August full well felt a certain spiritual quality in 
Emanuel, which he was incapable of comprehending 
—a quality that he secretly admired while pretending 
to make little of it, in fact, to pooh-pooh it. 

He observed that his mother’s attitude was the same. 
It was evident that without understanding her son’s 
foolishness, at bottom she entertained a certain vacil- 
lating respect for him. In rare unguarded moments 
her respect even took the form of motherly pride, and 
occasionally, in speaking to a neighbour or to the 
school-teacher, it manifested itself unexpectedly in ani- 
mated talk. 

Thus it came to pass that a great deal of bitterness 
gathered in August’s soul. There he was working in- 
dustriously, always chained to the workshop, and 
Emanuel managed to come and go freely, often for 
no purpose. It seemed to him he had to bear all the 
burdens of the family, while Emanuel was destined 
only for pleasure, was unjustly favoured in every re- 
spect, even by their mother, who gave Emanuel more 
love and care. 


* * * * * * * * 


His feeling was strengthened by a visit from the 
young pastor of Giersdorf two days after Emanuel’s 
return. The minister passed August over with a mere 
greeting, while he immediately entered into a friendly 
conversation with Emanuel. There was nothing in his 
bearing to indicate that he had come to give him the 
reprimand he deserved. On the contrary, he showed 
a certain deference to Emanuel, which he failed to show 
to August. It was that subtle respect which August’s 
eye made keen by envy seemed to detect in everybody’s 
intercourse with his brother. 


168 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


August was embarrassed and tongue-tied in the 
presence of the lively, jovial minister. Emanuel, he 
observed, was perfectly at ease. His manner was un- 
constrained, his language came freely. August was 
completely puzzled when he saw the minister draw a 
letter from his pocket — what could the letter have to 
do with Emanuel? — and begin to question him amia- 
bly, and finally invite him most cordially to come to 
the rectory in the afternoon “for a cup of tea ”— 
the brother heard that distinctly. 

After the pastor, who was in a hurry, had taken 
leave of the Fool with a handshake, both brothers heard 
him enter the living-room on the other side of the 
hall, and a moment later heard his resolute voice alter- 
nating with their father’s and mother’s voices. August 
was at a still greater loss to understand why the pastor 
very emphatically warned his father to treat Emanuel 
respectfully and never, in any circumstances, lay vio- 
lent hands upon him again. 

Even before receiving the pastor’s admonition old 
Quint had changed considerably in his attitude to 
Emanuel. During the last three days many things 
had happened that did not fail to make their impress 
upon him. The very day after Emanuel’s arrival, 
people from neighbouring villages had found their way 
to the little hut of the Quints, and had told the old 
bewildered idler and blatherskite, who now scarcely 
ever took a plane in hand, that they had heard of a 
certainty that his son was a celebrated, wonder-working 
healer. Since few of them could be turned away with- 
out their first seeing Emanuel, the father had to call 
him. When they met him face to face, they did him 
reverence bordering on adoration. 

But what staggered the mother, father, and brother 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 169 


most of all was that on the morning of the third day 
the postman drew from his bag some seventy letters, 
all addressed to Emanuel Quint. The majority of the 
letters had come to him in consequence of an item in 
a small Socialist sheet of the district. In about forty 
lines it gave an ironical though not unsympathetic ac- 
count of Emanuel’s first sermon, his disappearance, and 
his return. Mention was also made of the singular belief 
entertained by some people that he could perform 
miracles. Emanuel himself received by mail a marked 
copy of The Voice of the People containing the item, 
also a letter from the editor saying he intended soon 
to pay Emanuel a visit. 

Nevertheless Emanuel felt embittered to the last 
degree. His soul was unable to extricate itself from 
the countless strong grey threads in which it was en- 
meshed like a moth in a spider’s web. He felt as if 
he had swallowed some corrosive fluid which had the 
magic power of dwarfing everything in him. He was 
small again, reduced to the poor, wretched, comfortless, 
God-forsaken boy he had been before. 

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon that 
Emanuel started for the rectory. His mother had 
rigged him up as best she could with his father’s boots 
and an old coat that an innkeeper had given her for 
her husband years before. She had kept it hidden 
away all that time. 

The pastor received Emanuel cordially. When the 
cook announced him by rapping her knuckles on the 
study door, he called out aloud in a pleasant voice: 

“ Just come in. Come in.” 

He asked Emanuel to be seated. The cook had 
beforehand placed a special chair in the study for 
Quint, and she now hastily shoved it under him. The 


170 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


minister was smoking a long pipe which reached almost 
to the floor. 

‘Do you smoke? ” he asked Emanuel. 

66 No.” 

“ Unfortunately I am very much addicted to that 
vice.” 

On the table among piles of books stood a coffee- 
machine, which the clergyman himself manipulated. 

“TI live in my study like a bachelor,” he explained, 
“because the women coming and going while I work 
disturb me.” : 

With these and similar commonplaces the stately 
gentleman of about thirty opened the conversation. 
He turned the machine around, watched the coffee perco- 
late into the gaily-coloured porcelain pot, and poured 
the steaming beverage into the two cups on the table. 
He offered Emanuel cream and sugar, drank his coffee, 
waited until his visitor had taken a few sips, drew the 
girdle of his dressing-gown about his waist, tymg a bow 
with a practised hand, and stretched himself comfort- 
ably in his armchair. 

“ Now, then,” he began, “I think I am correctly in- 
formed. You are the same Emanuel Quint who de- 
livered a sermon in the market-place some time ago, are 
you not? Very well. We live in a state and under a 
government in which only such men as are regularly or- 
dained clergymen, like myself, for example, are per- 
mitted to preach the word of God, and that not in 
market-places or the like, but in houses of worship es- 
pecially erected for that purpose. Now, I have also 
been informed, Emanuel — Emanuel is a fine name, it 
means ‘ God with us ’— that you have felt called upon 
to be — let us say apostle, as some of your friends call 
it — an apostle in a number of places on the Bohemian 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 171 


border of our Silesia. I did not take quite the same 
stand as my fellow-clergymen from town did when you 
delivered your first sermon. And I do not care to criti- 
cise the police authorities, whose duty it is to maintain 
law and order. I do not know to what extent they are 
justified in charging you with quack practises and 
things of that sort. They have put you in the district 
insane asylum, and had you examined by alienists. I 
am far from thinking that if a person does not hit 
upon exactly the right thing in his interpretation 
of the Bible, we must jump to the conclusion that 
he is insane. I am sure your intentions were the 
purest. 

“ Now, I will not keep from you any longer the rea- 
son I asked you to visit me. I received a letter. You 
have a very distinguished patroness, a lady of very 
high standing, both in regard to her social position — 
she is of the nobility and possessed of great wealth — 
and principally because of the esteem in which she is 
generally held for the truly Christian life she leads. 
What was I saying? Yes, this very influential lady 
said she would like to know more about you. Do you 
know a lay preacher by the name of Nathaniel 
Schwarz? ” 

Quint’s pale face turned still paler. 

“Yes,” he answered. 

“This Brother Nathaniel,” continued the pastor, tak- 
ing tobacco from a bag and filling his pipe, “ this 
Brother Nathaniel has done you an inestimable serv- 
ice. He was led to do it, it seems, by two other men. 
Let me see — here are their names.” 

He took up the letter lying next to him on the table 
and with some difficulty read the names of Martin and 
Anton Scharf. 


172 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


‘ So this is the situation,” he continued. “ The lady 
writes that since you are a ‘sheep in my fold,’ I should 
find out all about you. I will add that I have also 
been charged, should our conversation prove mutually 
satisfactory, to provide you with the travelling ex- 
penses, and invite you to her estate, which is near Frei- 
burg. : 

“Now, then, you will please tell me in brief —I do 
not expect you to say it in two words, of course — 
what are your real aims — what is it you desire to 
do?” 

A long silence followed. Quint sat there smiling 
faintly with a brooding look in his eyes. ‘The pastor 
scrutinised him sharply. He thought his hesitation was 
due to shyness. 

“ Of course,” he said, trying to encourage Quint, “it 
is not easy to plunge right into such deep matters. 
Perhaps the best way would be for you to treat me as 
a man holding different opinions from yours, whom 
you want to convert.” 

But the poor Fool in Christ was again listening to the 
rustle of angels’ wings. A breath from purer regions 
was blowing upon him. And when he raised his eyes 
slowly and serenely, he seemed to shed a radiance from 
within. 

“Tf the lady, the lady of high rank, of whom you 
speak, pastor, seeks Christ, then, if she desires, I will 
go to her at any hour of the day or mght. But if 
she seeks me, then I say, she needs me not. No more do 
I need her.” 

The sudden change in Quint and the gravity of his 
words produced an uncanny impression upon the pastor. 

At first he thought Emanuel regarded himself as 
Christ. This would have condemned him at the outset 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 173 


in the pastor’s opinion. But Emanuel began to speak 
again. 

‘‘T have no need of her because I am accustomed to 
deprivation and have no wants. All I require is our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. And she has no need of me be- 
cause you yourself see what I am. I have never had a 
father save the Father of Jesus Christ. I have been de- 
spised all my life, and justly so. If at times I felt 
man’s contempt bitterly, that was because I was guilty 
of vainglory and exalted myself above the Saviour. I 
do not like to say these things. It seems like boasting. 
If so it seems to you, too, pastor, my father, my mother, 
and my brother will give you a better account of what 
I actually am. But if the lady seeks Christ, I seek 
Him also, and the community of spirit is the community 
of Jesus Christ.” 

‘“‘ But if you have so modest an opinion of yourself, 
my son,— which is quite in accord with the Christian 
spirit —I do not understand what could have made you 
act as you did in a country like ours, which has plenty 
of ordained ministers, what could have made you act as 
if our country were abandoned of God and Christ and 
as if its salvation depended upon your own feeble self. 
He who is truly modest, it seems to me, does not offend 
in public like that.” 

“ Pastor,” Emanuel said, “ unfortunately the cross is 
always and everywhere still an offence in this world, as 
the apostle says. Besides, I am modest only in re- 
spect of myself, not in respect of Him who is in me.” 

‘Explain to me, who is in you, my son,” the pastor 
asked with emphasis. 

The Father who begat me.” 

The pastor tried to remain calm. 

“¢ What you say, my dear Emanuel, is very strange, 


174 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


monstrous, I should say. Perhaps I did not understand 
you correctly. Who is the father that is in you?” 

‘The same through whom I have been born again,” 
said the poor Fool in Christ. 

‘Then it is your opinion that you have been born 
again? How so? On what grounds do you base your 
opinion? I, for example, should not dare to make such 
an unqualified statement concerning myself. I am too 
humble.” 

“ But I,” said Emanuel calmly, “ I know I have been 
born again.” 3 

‘In what sense, my son, have you been born again? ” 

‘“‘T have been born again through the grace of Jesus 
Christ, not in the flesh but in the Holy Ghost. Weak 
and enslaved in the body I have grown strong and free 
in the spirit. I was dead, buried in the contempt of 
the world, and was revived through the Father. It is 
the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.” 

The pastor for some reason laid aside his pipe. 

“ Continue. Speak out what you have on your mind 
perfectly freely. I have time. I will listen to you,” 
he said encouragingly. “So you are in the regenera- 
tion. I assume you mean a different regeneration 
from the one that takes place in the holy baptism by 
which we were converted from heathens into Christians, 
the regeneration we all have in common. Will you 
please tell me to whom you owe your special knowl- 
edge? I suppose you did not get it out of yourself?” 

“JT did not get anything out of myself. All I have 
is from Him that is in me.” 

The minister became a little impatient. 

“TI would ask you, my son, please to speak to me 
quite simply and naturally, in fact, I am tempted to 
say, humanly. What do you mean by saying you 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST. 175 


got your knowledge, your information, from Him that 
is in you? Tell me, who do you think you are?” 

** By the birth in the spirit or in the flesh? ” 

“Well, by both births.” 

‘* By the birth in the flesh I am the son of man. By 
the birth in the spirit I am the son of God.” 

The pastor rose from his chair horrified. 

* For God’s sake, what are you saying? ‘That is a 
conceit which, to put the most favourable construction 
upon it, amounts to a disease.” ‘Though he wore 
bedroom slippers, the pastor paced the study with a 
heavy tread. ‘‘ Why, man, don’t you really under- 
stand what you are saying?” he resumed, stopping 
before Emanuel. ‘* Jesus Christ was the Son of God, 
conceived by the Holy Ghost, begotten of the Virgin 
Mary. Should you, even in madness presume to as- 
sert that you are that Most Blessed, then, in spite 
of your madness, you will have brought down upon 
yourself mortal sin.” 

Quint remained quiet, and a deep inner joy shone 
upon his face. 

‘Explain yourself again. Tell me in plain, distinct 
language what you mean and how you mean it.” As 
if he were stifling, the minister opened a window dark- 
ened by the green branches of a beech. 

Emanuel said: 

“God is a spirit.” And he drew forth his Bible, 
and read: *** And no man knoweth the Son, but the 
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the 
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.’ 
How shall they know the Son or learn from him ex- 
cept the Father be in them? ” 

“My good friend,’ said the clergyman emphat- 
ically, “I can only advise you to keep away from 


176 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


these most recondite questions. Believe me, the great- 
est intellects, the most erudite scholars, have tried their 
skill upon them, but in vain, and often to the detri- 
ment of their immortal souls. My advice to you is 
to stick to the usual interpretation, according to which 
the words of Christ that you read mean that only the 
Father can fathom the entire power, force, and depth 
of the Son of God, while we common mortals can only 
reach an understanding of them through the love of 
the Son, our Saviour. But before we are through, 
I should like to know what I am to tell the lady about 
your practical aims. Are you one of those who believe 
that the apostolic heritage enables them to heal the 
sick by prayer or the laying on of hands?” 

“No,” said Quint. ‘ Neither did the Saviour come 
to earth to feast and riot and be a minister of his own 
body, or of the bodies of others. He came not to help 
us gain the world, but overcome the world.” 

The pastor rejoined that nevertheless, as Emanuel 
must know, Jesus as well as the apostles did heal the 
sick by the laying on of hands. Christ had even raised 
the dead — Lazarus, the little daughter of Jairus, and 
the young man of Nain. 

Emanuel Quint shook his head almost imperceptibly, 
and the pastor asked him what he meant. 

“ Wherefore,” replied Quint, ‘would the Saviour 
have brought the man, the child, and the youth back 
to this pitiful world which they had already overcome? ” 

For a moment the pastor did not understand the 
singular question. ! 

“J should think,” continued the Fool in Christ, 
“that he did it as a judge of the world to punish them 
with renewed life for the sins they had committed. But 
who has made the Son of man a judge of the world? 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 177 


He knew the Father that was in Him, as I know the 
Father that is in me. That Father sendeth rain on 
the just and the unjust alike, and he maketh his sun 
to rise on the evil and the good, as it is written in 
my heart. Pastor, He maketh his sun to rise. That 
does not mean this sun alone, which is now shining 
on your bookcase. It means the spiritual sun of the 
Father, which is also given to the evil and the unjust. 
Now, if I believe in Him who according to the word of 
the Apostle Paul does not justify the just but the un- 
just and ungodly — yea, the ungodly — then I ask my- 
self what did he want to do to Lazarus, to the little 
daughter of Jairus, and to the youth of Nain by rais- 
ing them up from the dead? Verily, I say unto you, 
pastor, the Son of God hath not raised these dead ex- 
cept it be into eternal life. But the Son of man would 
not and could not raise them up. It is not given to 
the Son of man to raise the dead and heal the sick 
save through human medicine. It is but given to the 
Son of man to suffer himself and to suffer for others, 
that is to say, to love; that is to say, to be merciful.” 
“You are venturing upon dangerous ground, my 
friend,” said the pastor, raising a warning finger. 
“You are aware, I suppose, that you are on the road 
to denying the miracles of our Lord J esus —- nothing 
less — and so putting yourself in opposition to the 
' Holy Scriptures and the entize Christian Church.” 
“The Lord hath said,” replied Quint, an intense 
feverish gleam in his eyes, “let the dead bury their 
dead. He hath not said he would raise the dead in the 
body back to life in the flesh and to spiritual death. As 
to the Bible, it was written down by erring human 
hands. The letter killeth. It is only the spirit that 
giveth life. Without the spirit to quicken it, the let- 


178 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ter remains dead. The spirit is always more than the 
letter. Now, it is the letter that is in the book, but 
the spirit is in me. All those who can read, read let- 
ters, but what were the spirit if it were confined within 
the small limits of the letters? The Father does not 
clothe Himself in letters, neither does the Son. The 
garment of both is eternity. And therefore, pastor, I 
think, the Father is in me, the Son is in me — that is 
the miracle. Nothing else is. Their kingdom is not 
of this world. And worldly miracles of the Son of 
man, what are they to the heavenly miracles of the 
Son of God? And as the Son alone knows the Father, 
so the son alone knows the Son. And the Father alone 
knows the Son and Himself even behind the dead veil 
that conceals them, the words of the Writ and their let- 
ters. Only what the Father reads is truly read and 
recognised by the Father, and what the Son reads is 
truly read by the Son and recognised by the Son. 
What is not read by the Father and not by the Son is 
like a heap of cold ashes which a blind man’s stick 
rakes up.” 

“ Well, so far as I am concerned,” said the pastor, 
“you can expound your chaotic ideas at the castle 
of the Gurau Lady. I do not think you will meet 
with favour. After what I have heard I am not anx- 
ious to penetrate deeper into the labyrinth of your 
very peculiar views — very peculiar, indeed. It is a 
pity. You think, but you think without guidance. 
That is always dangerous, especially in the uneducated. 
If you had studied theology, you would certainly not 
have got so hopelessly entangled in the thorns and 
brambles of fallacies. I am afraid you have not told 
me nearly all you have excogitated. I dare say I could 
learn a lot more wonderful things. | 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 179 


“‘ Now, tell me one thing more. With your ideas and 
theories have you any earthly aims in view? Do you 
want to improve the condition of the poor? Are you, 
like certain crazy religious enthusiasts, awaiting the 
speedy coming of the millennium? Do you want to 
- reform the church and start a campaign against her 
dogmas? Do you favour community of goods of the 
kind the early Christians had? Do you incline to 
Socialism? It is Socialism I should advise you most 
of all to keep away from.” 

To all these questions Quint shook his head. He 
again scrutinised the pastor’s youthful, robust figure, 
and at the same time a dim impenetrable veil seemed to 
spread over his face covering all the secrets of his 
inner being. 

“ Well,” sighed the pastor, “so now we have had our 
talk? He went over to a tall cabinet of dark wood, 
a venerable old piece of baroque furniture, opened 
its folding doors, and took a banknote from one of the 
many drawers. Fingering it dubiously, he seemed to be 
deliberating, unable to reach a decision. “I will tell 
you frankly, Quint,” he finally said, “I do not know 
what to do. I do not know whether in the circum- 
stances the lady would want me to give you the money 
or not. If I had realised I should have to withhold it 
from you, I should have acted otherwise at the outset. 
I wasn’t careful enough. Such a thing is so improb- 
able, it is hard to imagine it, you know —I mean the 
exceedingly strange statements you made. Well, for 
all I care, go to the Gurau Lady. It will be just 
a little punishment to her for being so credulous in 
religious matters. Let her see for herself what one 
can occasionally expect from that lay intermeddling in 
religion which she encourages.” 


186 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


With a resolute gesture the pastor held out the note 
to the strange carpenter-apprentice, who had declared 
in one and the same breath that he was the Son of man 
and the Son of God. 

Quint shook his head. The minister at first refused 
to understand. He felt rather small, and shammed 
good-natured resentment. Quint said he was very 
grateful to the lady and the pastor for their kindness, 
but he positively did not need the money, even if he 
should visit the lady. 


* * % *  * * # * 


After Quint left, the pastor called his wife into his 
study, and the two watched the Fool walk through the 
front garden. 

“Do you see that tall man?” he asked, pointing to 
Emanuel. 

“Of course I see him.” 

“Tell me how he strikes you. What would you 
think of him from his walk and appearance? ” 

The pastor’s wife, a young, wide-awake little woman, 
burst out laughing. 

“YT should think he is the kind that fears a police- 
man more than he fears God.” 

“ My dear,” replied the pastor, “ I have never in my 
life been so staggered as I was by that fellow there 
who looks like a tramp. Feel my hands.” 

“ Why,” said his wife, “ they are cold and clammy.” 

“He says he is no less than Jesus of Nazareth.” 


CHAPTER X 


A Few days later the Scharf brothers visited Emanuel. 
He explained to them that in his home they could not 
hold a conversation undisturbed, and the three went to 
the tavern of the lower village, which actually bore the 
name of “ The House of Emmaus.” In giving an ac- 
count of all that happened since his arrest, the brothers 
told Emanuel that they had visited the Gurau Lady, 
and that Bohemian Joe, the weaver Schubert, the black- 
smith John, and the former tailor Schwabe were at that 
moment in Giersdorf, having yielded to their lively 
desire to see Emanuel again. 

For their meeting-place the next day Emanuel fixed 
upon a pear-tree on the edge of a field outside the 
village. 

“We cannot meet until twilight,” said Quint, “ be- 
cause we must try not to arouse notice. The village 
is curiously excited on account of me. My stepfather 
and stepbrother tell me of all sorts of strange things 
they hear said, and they lay the blame on me. Indeed, 
my family has to suffer much for my sake. Though 
I never maintained that I can make the lame walk, or 
the blind see, or the leper clean, many sick people come 
to me in the home of my parents. There are others 
that fight and curse me, as if I were a liar and a cheat.” 


* * * * * * * * 


The next day at twilight, as the moon rose over a 
grey fog hanging flat upon the fields, the little con- 
181 


182 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


gregation of the poor and the foolish quietly gathered 
about the pear-tree. The Scharf brothers, Schubert, 
John, Schwabe, and Bohemian Joe did not constitute 
the entire assembly. There were, besides, about twenty 
men and women from the village, who had been partly 
admitted to the secret, having been told that Emanuel 
was a man inspired by the Holy Ghost. 

A rumour from the rectory had reached them, and the 
rumour had not been denied. The pastor had said that 
Quint flatly asserted he was Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God. The report flew into the village like wildfire. 
The pastor, without any definite intention of doing so, 
fanned the people’s excitement by frequent, lively repe- 
titions of his statement. Within a few days he had 
spoken to the parish clerk, the apothecary, the lessee 
of a large aristocratic estate in the neighbourhood, and 
at the reserved table in the tavern. Emanuel’s assertion 
took the form of a public offence, and Emanuel was 
branded a dangerous, even though an undeniable, fool. 

At the same time the people heard that the false 
Jesus of Nazareth was to visit the Gurau Lady. 
This in everybody’s eyes invested him with special im- 
portance. Those who formerly would merely have 
shrugged their shoulders pityingly now waxed indig- 
nant. And those who knew Emanuel— who in the 
village did not know Emanuel Quint? — shrieked them- 
selves hoarse with anger, though previously they would 
have laughed at him. But the very pious people, in- 
capable of forming an opinion for themselves and un- 
equal to this remarkable event in their simplicity and 
credulity, were excited and transported into a state 
of hopeful, pious fearfulness. 

None of the villagers could conceal certain holy 
shudderings in the face of this fantastic assumption, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 183 


which, after all, was now an event. It derived an un- 
deniable halo of glory from the model it shammed, the 
second coming of the Lord. The whole village of 
Giersdorf stretching about a mile along the stream was 
suddenly alive with religion. In the upper village, 
which, as it were, was the head of the place, the people 
spoke of nothing but the holiness of the true Jesus and 
the ridiculousness of the false Jesus of Nazareth. On 
their visits to patients physicians discussed the biblical 
event and the pitiable parody of it. Servant girls 
spoke of it to the shop-boys over the counters. The 
poor customers modestly waited for expensive drugs 
while the apothecary clerks merrily exchanged news of 
the Giersdorf Messiah. And the peasants walking 
through the village alongside their heavy horses hauling 
timber called to each passing day-labourer: 

‘“¢ Have you seen the new Christ with your own eyes? ” 
And generally added, “ Well, I'll be Le 

In the lower village, where the Catholic and the 
Protestant churches stood opposite each other, even 
the chaplain was disturbed by the rumour. Women, 
young and old, coming to confess told him of the mad- 
ness of the unhappy Fool. Emanuel had acquired such 
dangerous notoriety that he could not venture forth 
from his home until after nightfall, and then he had to 
choose by-ways. 

To the Scharf brothers the unusual state in which 
they found the whole village was a confirmation of their 
ineradicable belief. The host of the House of Em- 
maus, a man of seventy, a member of the “‘ Community 
of Saints,” long ridiculed as an eccentric, immediately 
greeted the Scharfs with the news of the false Jesus 
Christ. The host had done the unheard-of. For ten 
years wine, beer, and brandy had been. banished from 





184 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


his inn. Instead, he dispensed milk and Selters, be- 
cause milk and Selters were the only drinks compatible 
with the pious principles of his brotherhood. He con- 
sidered the arrogant folly of the carpenter’s son to be 
one of the dreadful signs of the times, and in speaking 
of it to his guests, he said it indicated how near was the 
end of this sinning world. 

But the Scharf brothers, both of them at the same 
time, started as if a light had suddenly been turned on 
in the dark, and their words and looks reacted vividly 
upon the inn-keeper. 

It was inevitable that the poor people creeping to 
the pear-tree should be in a state of expectation, ap- 
prehension, and terror. It took some time for all of 
them to dare to gather in a group. Here and there 
a few had circumspectly held aloof, standing at the edge 
of the field or at the edge of the birch grove, about a 
hundred feet away. At last they were all seated, whis- 
pering or silent, and waited with secret dismay for what 
was to come. The moon as large as a wheel, resembling 
a dise of red-hot iron, rose between the two churches. 

Anton Scharf was sitting with his back against the 
trunk of the pear-tree holding the hand of Schwabe, 
who.sat next to him trembling. Emanuel had not yet 
come. All were peering into the darkness for a glimpse | 
of him. They thought they saw him coming, now from 
this direction, now from that. The dogs in the yards 
were barking. An owl hooted in the woods nearby. 
The stars came out in greater numbers in the cloudless 
sky. Over the long rows of the village houses and 
trees the eastern heavens were a deep, cold blue. But 
the western heavens for some time retained the dark-red 
glow from the setting sun. Everything was large, 
silent, and solemn. Bats from the roofs of the barns 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 185 


and churches came flying over the fields through the 
twilight above the layers of fog, and circled in wide 
sweeps about the pear-tree. The insistent shrilling of 
frogs in a marshy pond hidden behind the grove pierced 
the air. 

But for their terror the little congregation would 
have started up a hymn. After a time it became so 
evident that all were in the clutches of fear, that Martin 
Scharf asked them to move closer to him, and found it 
necessary to encourage them with a few low-spoken but 
pithy words of comfort. 

“ We know it is said in the Bible that a prophet is not 
without honour, save in his own country. Nevertheless, 
have no fears. They may speak all manner of evil 
against him, they may heap contumely upon him, but the 
more the spirit of the bottomless pit rages against him, 
the more surely is God with him.” 

*“Is it true,” asked an old, bent linen-weaver’s wife, 
“that he told our pastor he is the Lord Jesus Christ? ” 

‘What he told the pastor,” broke in Anton, hasty 
as usual, though speaking in a whisper, “ what he told 
our pastor, we do not know. But one thing we do 
know, and that is, whatever he said to the pastor is the 
gospel truth.” 

A young wheelwright, a consumptive, insisted that 
Quint had actually stated that he was Jesus Christ, Son 
of the living God. 

Schubert, Schwabe, Anton, and Martin now narrated 
the dreams they had had of Emanuel Quint. Schwabe 
had seen the marks of the nails on his hands and feet. 
Anton had been asked three times by Emanuel whether 
he loved him, and Martin had seen him walk over a 
bottomless bog in the Hirschberger valley without wet- 
ting his feet. As for Schubert, he had had a genuine 


186 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


vision, and he gave a vivid account of it, in the way of 
simple people. 

One evening he left his hut on the mountain ridge to 
go to the teacher Stoppe. He had reached the point 
where the road down into Prussia branched off, when 
looking up suddenly he saw Emanuel Quint about fifty 
feet away also walking toward the crossway. He stood 
rooted to the spot. Emanuel approached. 

“ Well,” said Schubert, “I thought it was all in my 
imagination, and I walked on, too, and wanted to go 
past him or through him, when suddenly just where the 
road going down into Prussia begins, I was thrown 
back, as if I had bumped against a stone wall. A 
second before he had been standing right next to me, 
but at that moment he disappeared. Then I knew what 
it meant,” Schubert concluded solemnly. “I went 
home, just explained to my wife where I was going, and 
the same evening I took that very road down into Prus- 
sia. Now you know, dear brethren, why I am here.” 

Suddenly everybody started. One said he had heard 
branches cracking and voices whispering in the birch- 
grove. Another said Quint had come. A third, the 
wheelwright, jumped up, and said he had just seen him 
approaching along the edge of the vetch field. 

‘‘ Dear sisters and brethren, fear not! Be patient!” 
Martin again tried to calm them. 

Bohemian Joe in his reckless courage leapt to the 
border of the grove to investigate the cause of the 
sounds that had disquieted some of the brethren. 

Bohemian Joe’s head was always swarming with 
maggots. Yet he was surprisingly shrewd and self- 
willed. Fear of man was unknown to him. If he was 
afraid of anything it was God and the devil. His 
mother had been a gypsy. From her race he inherited 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 187 


superstition, a mystical conception of nature, and the 
desire for restless roaming. 

“People,” he said, returning from the edge of the 
grove, and speaking not exactly in the subdued tones 
of the brotherhood, “I think a whole regiment of Frei- 
burg Rifles are creeping up.” 

This piece of exaggeration joined to the comfort- 
able, careless way in which he sat himself down among 
the waiting people eased their minds and set them 
laughing, though their laughter was suppressed. 

Bohemian Joe had always been religious. Not 
seldom he was to be seen in graveyards standing now at 
one grave, now at another, murmuring from time to 
time and sighing to himself. Always inclined to ad- 
venture, he was quickly caught up in the whirlpool 
about Quint. He reflected much about himself and 
God. At night, lying on his back, he often looked 
up at the heavens for hours at a time, experiencing 
both a sense of oppression and exaltation, while en- 
joying the whole unfathomable marvel, as only a man 
who feels things in the very core of his being can enjoy 
it. Filled with sublime dread he rejoiced in the holy 
sport of the golden meteors, and in such moments held it 
for certain that he who could comprehend all this, 
he the poor, filthy, hideous knave, was a favoured, elect 
member of the divine creation. 

You could tell by the lingering gaze of his fathomless 
dark eyes that nothing was plain and natural to him. 
Everything was a wonder. He marvelled at the sim- 
plest things. That is why nothing in his nature re- 
belled against recognising in Quint, the run-away 
carpenter’s apprentice, simple as he seemed, a vessel 
for mysteries and miracles. Moreover, he did not 
seem to himself too insignificant for an ever-watchful 


188 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


divine guidance. He was convinced it was not in vain 
and merely by chance that a hand from the great In- 
visible had led him to Quint way up there in the knee- 
pine. 

The Scharfs, however, did not see in him a thorough 
believer, unreservedly devoted to the cause. To be 
sure he had contributed lavishly to the common fund, 
more than any of the others. Yet he did not show that 
genuine, ardent hunger for the final fulfilment of the 
promise. In one sense he had nothing but the Bible 
in his head. In another, it’ sometimes seemed, he had 
precious little of it. Quint’s personality had charmed 
him, and now it was the fantastic world of the gospels, 
the narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that 
held his fascinated gaze bound like a child’s to the lips 
of the Scharfs. : 

His curiosity led him farther and farther into the 
world of the Bible narratives, which the brothers 
preached to him with fiery tongues, with unwavering 
conviction and passion. He grew familiar with the 
story of the great event, the sending to earth of God’s 
only begotten Son to redeem the world from the curse of 
sin and restore man to the lost Paradise — an event held 
to be the event of events, the one grand turning-point 
in the dreary lot of all mankind. Bohemian Joe be- 
gan to think day and night of the poor youth, the Son 
of God, and his sorrowful fate on earth. To be sure, 
it had been the Jews.who had persecuted and crucified 
Him. Yet Bohemian Joe always shook his head and 
felt ashamed of the race of man. Sometimes his 
healthy brain could not grasp what those two cranks, 
the Scharf brothers, meant when they said Quint was 
the same as He that had been crucified. 

However, expectancy remained alive in him. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 189 


Though he had long given up hope of the next day, 
he kept walking forward to that great event, still hid- 
den in obscurity, yet sure to come some time or other. 
Occasionally he became impatient. He would then con- 
struct a new life and new events upon some star. 
What was to his taste were ghost stories, such as the 
one Schubert had told of the apparition of Emanuel. 
He especially liked to hear them at night in the open 
air, sitting about a brushwood fire, when some real or 
fancied danger was threatening. He also enjoyed 
them in the mountain taverns under the swinging lamps. 
But nothing more delightful could befall him than this 
gruesome waiting at night for the outlaw Emanuel 
Quint, surrounded by mysteries, dangers, and sus- 
picions. 

Suddenly the man they were expecting stood before 
them. All rose from the ground. 

“TJ beseech you, dear sisters and brethren, depart,” 
said Emanuel. His tone was kindly, and his voice 
quivered with emotion. In the light of the moon, 
which had turned paler on rising, Quint’s face and 
figure seemed to be formed of nothing but white radi- 
ance. ‘I would not have you suffer on my account,” 
he continued. Despite the half-light, they all saw 
how worn and wet with tears was the face of the false 
Messiah. “ You must not suffer on my account, for I 
am nothing. Let them tread me underfoot. It is not 
that. Verily, I deserve nothing better. But I knew not 
that to-day, two thousand years after our Saviour’s 
birth into this world, that same world was still so frantic 
and wrathful in its sinning. Dear sisters and brethren, 
you see me dismayed, not because the people over there 
rage against me, but because they rage against Jesus 
Christ Himself.” 


190 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“* We know they rage against Jesus Christ Himself,” — 
suddenly exclaimed the hunch-backed tailor Schwabe, 
and threw himself face downward before Quint. 

Quint started in terror, and wanted to raise him. 
But he was moved by such readiness in a man to give 
himself up to the divine, and he instantly felt a tender 
love and profound sympathy for Schwabe welling up 
within him. He did not succeed in raising the sobbing 
man from the ground. Some will say he should have 
rebuked him and said: 

“You are not worshipping God in me, but, rather, 
the prince of hell. I am a poor man like yourself, a 
poor, blinded carpenter’s apprentice. At best you are 
giving yourself up to a horrible self-delusion! ” 

But it had become impossible for Emanuel Quint to 
say that or something similar. He could not unde- 
ceive the poor man. And here he again showed that 
foolishness peculiar to him, by which his being was 
divided into two, a spiritual being that seemed to him 
divine through and through, and a fleshly being, the 
sinful being of this earth. 

* Dear brother,” he said, “ you did not say that from 
out of your own heart. Nor did you say it to me, who 
am standing here before you in the flesh. But He to 
whom your soul turned in the quiet of the night and be- 
fore whom you prostrated yourself, He the Father which 
is in me, heard you. ‘To Him you spoke.” 

Emanuel did not mean that in the fleshly sense he 
was Christ, the Son of God, come to earth again. 
Nevertheless, as later events showed, there was not a 
man, woman, or child of all those present who did not 
understand him to say that he was actually the Saviour. 

In this brief occurrence there must have lain a con- 
fusing power difficult for the modern enlightened man 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 191 


to comprehend. ‘The statements of all those people com- 
pel one to the belief that there must have been such a 
power. The weaver’s wife, an old woman of over sixty, 
said she felt as if suddenly the stars came raining down 
from heaven, and as if she could no longer swallow or 
breathe. The wheelwright said that when Quint bent 
over Schwabe, he distinctly felt the ground beneath him 
quivering, and clearly heard a subterranean rumbling. 
Bohemian Joe declared he did not know what it was, 
whether a natural phenomenon or magic, but the whole 
sky all at once turned blood-red, bright as day. He 
was told that every evening that year the heavens in the 
west were flushed a bright red until long after ten 
o’clock, as everybody had noticed. Yet— you could 
tell it by his manner — Bohemian Joe was not to be 
persuaded out of his conviction. 

The assembly fell into a frenzy. All the people, the 
Scharfs first, crowded about the Fool, and weeping and 
sobbing kissed his hands fervidly, tenderly. An out- 
side observer would have been at a loss to explain what 
was happening. As a matter of fact, the swarm of 
kneeling, bowing men and women in the moonlight, 
gathered about a man holding himself erect, had not 
gone unobserved. Some eavesdroppers — not the Frei- 
burg Rifles — had crept up in the birch grove, and they 
accompanied the ghost-like proceedings with whisper- 
ings and titterings, and sometimes, too, with astonished, 
questioning looks. 

With it all Emanuel Quint was unspeakably sorrow- 
ful. He was disconsolate. On all sides he seemed to 
be forced into a way of lies, which was also a way of 
contempt. Rarely before had he ever felt so hot a de- 
sire to be cast loose from men and be alone with God. 
But the men encompassed him — this one ready to fol- 


192 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


low him, that one in the dire need of his soul and body 
— all demanding salvation from him, and he unable to 
give it. And he pitied them. He could not withdraw 
from the world and deceive the few that were close to 
him and leave them behind in despair. ‘To be sure — 
many an one lives and laughs and eats and drinks, in- 
different, hopeless, with the cold ashes of a once burning 
despair in his breast. Yet he could not kill their be- 
lief. Too great was his compassion, too tender his love 
for him to commit such murder. 

Nevertheless, he took the Scharfs aside and asked 
them, urged them, fairly begged them to leave him. 

“ Keep the secret of the kingdom, dear brethren, yet 
leave me.”? And now, unfortunately, he fell again into 
his biblical way of speaking, and said, “The son of 
man has come to bear the sorrows of the Son of man! 
I am poor. The floors in the house of my father and 
my mother burn my naked soles. I must leave. The 
son of man has no roof to shelter him, no bed, no pil- 
low for his head. What await ye from me? What 
seek ye of me?” 

“That you do not forget us,” said Martin Scharf 
in his exaltation, “ that igh do not forget us when you 
are enthroned in glory.” 

Now Quint could not but clearly realise the fearful 
delusion that had taken firm root in the heads of the 
smaller circle of his followers. 

‘“ Martin,” he burst out, in an access of wrath. 
‘Martin, you see who I am! I am not He for whom 
you take me! What would you have of me? If you 
will partake of my glory, you see my glory is suffer- 
ing. I have no other earthly glory! Go speak to my 
stepfather! Speak te my brother! Listen to what 
they say of me in the taverns and the houses of the ~ 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 193 


rich! What you will learn, that constitutes my entire 
glory! Would you have the coat on my back? Take 
it! Of gold and silver I have none, and want none! 
So wealth is not to be expected of me, not now, and not 
in all eternity. What do you expect of me?” 

Anton cried out ecstatically, speaking in the monoto- 
nous, chanting tone in which the Bible is read: 

“We are looking for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might 
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
peculiar people, zealous of good works.” 

Emanuel drew a deep breath. His soul was racked. 
He wanted to tear himself away, but the people crowded 
about him again supplicating like hungry beggars, as if 
he were holding aloft a loaf of bread. A wave of com- 
passion and horror flowed over him— compassion be- 
cause of their helpless bodily want, horror because of 
their undignified, secret greed for other than spiritual 
goods. And he was struck with horror at what he 
recognised in their conduct was a senseless lust for mis- 
deeds. 

He was almost impelled to take flight when the full 
force of his calling as a teacher flashed through him. 
After resolutely disentangling himself from his be- 
siegers, he walked firmly to the top of the hillock on 
which the pear-tree stood and bade the congregation sit 
down about him. 

He began to speak. His voice again sounded firm 
and simple, though quivering perceptibly with the fore- 
taste of inspiration. 

“You know that Jesus the Saviour, as the apostles 
tell us, always spoke to the multitude in parables —” 

That was as far as Emanuel got. 


CHAPTER XI 


Many of the villagers afterward sided completely with 
those who attempted to rid the village and the world at 
large of a public nuisance. Of course, they said, the 
butcher’s boy was not exactly to be justified in having 
broken Schwabe’s left leg with a bean-pole. But he 
must be excused on the score of his Christian feelings. 
Bohemian Joe was universally condemned for having 
literally tossed an innkeeper of the lower village and 
farmer Karge’s stable-boy into a deepish frog pond. 
And before throwing them in he had so maltreated them 
that both were laid up almost two weeks. 

It was proved that a mob of excited men, among 
whom were some putters from the neighbouring coal 
mines, a horse-dealer, a trader, and a butcher, had left 
the tavern At the Sign of the Star, in a semi-intoxi- 
cated condition with the avowed intention of first go- 
ing to another tavern, the House of Emmaus, and 
there seeking a quarrel with the “saints.” If they 
found Emanuel Quint there, they would “ give it to 
him,” meaning they would beat him black and blue. 

By the time they had crossed the bridge and were 
opposite the House of Emmaus, they were already 
armed with sticks of hazel-wood, stones, pieces of 
rope, and similar missiles. The host immediately closed 
his doors. Later, on the witness-stand, he displayed a 
piece of flint the size of a man’s fist, and said it had 
shattered one of his windows. 

But no other excesses occurred at the House of 

194 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 195 


Emmaus. ‘That was due to a bit of shameful treachery 
on the part of the housekeeper. One of the rioters, the 
very butcher’s boy who broke poor Schwabe’s leg, was 
her lover, and from a window overlooking the yard 
she called to him and told him of the meeting at the 
pear-tree. 

The mob now changed its tactics. From having 
been wildly uproarious it became very quiet. Later the 
rioters, among whom there were a few fanatic Catholics, 
almost unanimously spoke of the affair as having been 
a joke. But neither the little group about Emanuel 
nor Emanuel himself could see much innocent fun in it 
when the horde of Apaches descended upon them. 

Emanuel had scarcely uttered the word ‘ parables ” 
when a shrill whistle from the grove interrupted him. 
It was the signal of attack, given by the horse-dealer, 
who had been commissioned to do so because he knew 
how to produce a piercing screech by putting a finger 
of each hand inside his bloated cheeks. The little 
assembly had no chance to recover from their stark 
fright at the barbaric sound before dark forms leapt 
into the moonlight from the shadows of the grove, and 
bounded to the pear-tree. Emanuel often re-lived the 
attack in his dreams. The same moonlit night with its 
spacious stillness would surround him, he would see the 
waving of dark trees, he would suddenly hear the ear- 
splitting whistle, and then a pack of wolves, as it seemed 
to him, would come leaping at him. Something that also 
clung in his memory was the croaking of the frogs in 
the pond behind the grove. 

As the assailants approached, quietly as they had 
agreed, Quint’s surprised adherents uttered one loud 
despairing cry for help, and scattered in all directions. 
Later that cry passed into mythology. Some persons 


196 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


in the upper village said they heard it, and others a 
great distance away in the very opposite direction, also 
maintained they heard it. Even allowing for the quiet 
of the night that was inexplicable. 

For a moment Emanuel was left alone, most of the 
mob having dashed off in pursuit of his congregation, 
who were flying in all directions. But then he was sur- 
rounded by three wild, panting creatures, saw bluish, 
grimacing faces which he never forgot, and heard, 
“ Here’s the fellow!” 

At the same time he felt violent hands laid upon his 
breast, his back, and his arms. He offered no resist- 
ance. All of a sudden it seemed to him that he was 
not himself, that he was not standing on the spot where 
he actually was standing, that he was not taking part 
in what was happening. This may have turned out 
to be an advantage to him, since unprovoked by resist- 
ance the men at first did not maltreat him. | 

But they seized him and for some purpose they 
seemed to have in view they ran with him over the field 
to the grove, forcing him to race with them. They 
pulled and dragged him down a slope and were within 
only a few paces of a small lake overgrown with 
sedge, when one of Emanuel’s tormentors was most 
unexpectedly felled to the ground by a mighty blow 
out of the dark. Without uttering a sound the man 
sank down among the ferns. 

The remaining two continued to drag Emanuel 
toward the pond. As had been prearranged, he was 
to receive a baptism that would sober him for the rest 
of his life. But they were prevented from carrying 
out their designs. Bohemian Joe reversed the situa- 
tion. They and not their victim received the sobering 
bath. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 197 


Bohemian Joe in his frightful hideousness had sud- 
denly appeared before the startled rowdies like an evil 
demon, or the devil himself. With a few blows of his 
fist he freed the poor Fool from his persecutors. But 
scarcely was Emanuel torn from the clutch of many 
hands, when he fell to the ground senseless. 

* ‘k * * x * * * 


Thus ended sadly enough the innocent gathering of 
a few poor misguided souls hungry for salvation. 

The incident provoked much laughter. It was taken 
as a travesty of the holiest, an unintentional travesty, 
and for that reason somewhat pathetic. In other 
circles the gathering itself was considered a blasphemy, 
and the attack, therefore, a healthy reaction of the in- 
sulted Christianity of the people. 

In Reichenbach there was a religious society con- 
sisting of some influential men and a large number of 
women who strove for a deeper religious life than the 
church could offer. Many voices in this society were 
raised in behalf of Quint and his followers. But all 
in all the incident soon sank into oblivion because at 
that very time the Czar of Russia and the President 
of France met on a French war-vessel, and gave utter- 
ance to some toasts that agitated the whole European 
world. 

Little heed was paid to what afterward happened to 
Quint. He had been picked up while still unconscious, 
and carried home bleeding in several places. His 
mother, genuinely alarmed, gave a lively exhibition of 
her motherly love in tears and sobs, and nursed him 
with the amount of care customary in that class and 
with a little more than the customary tenderness. 

A few days later a physician came to see Emanuel 
at the request of the Gurau Lady, who had been 


198 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


told of the misfortune by Anton and Martin Scharf 
and Brother Nathaniel. The physician found that not 
only were there a number of skin wounds but also a 
rupture of a blood vessel in one of Emanuel’s lungs, 
the result of a violent blow. 

The physician advised Emanuel and his mother, who 
stood crying beside the sorry bed, to start a private 
suit against his assailants. His mother and even his 
stepfather were willing. But Emanuel would not hear 
of it. 

A few days later after dark he was removed from the 
miserable, slant-roofed lumber room where he had been 
lying and transported to a sisterhood hospital founded 
and wholly maintained by the Gurau Lady. 

** Since the poor man,” she said, ** cannot come to me 
of himself, there is nothing for me to do but to go get 
him.” 

Three deaconesses and a sort of sister superior had 
charge of the little hospital set in a charming garden 
not far from the edge of the woods. From time to 
time the Lady herself, accompanied by her companion, 
came driving over from Gurau in a satin-lined coach to 
see for herself how her institution was prospering. 
She paid her first visit after Emanuel came on a Mon- 
day, exactly a week after his arrival. 

Before going to see him where he lay she had a long 
talk with the physician and the sister superior in a 
room reserved for her. 'The somewhat shapeless little 
lady did not stand still for an instant, but kept rustling 
her stiff black silk dress back and forth in the room, 
from the wall hung with a steel engraving of the way 
to Emmaus, to the other wall hung with a painting of 
the Ascension. Finally she had the sister and the 
physician take her in to Emanuel. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 199 


She looked at him curiously. His lean shoulders 
were covered by a flannel jacket open at his throat and 
leaving his long neck bare. He reclined in the clean 
white bed with his back supported by pillows. On a 
yellow wooden chair next to the bed were two copies 
of the Bible, one brownish, soiled, and torn — his own 
property and the source of his errors — the other the 
property of the hospital, in fact of the very bed he 
was lying in. In the views of that Protestant circle 
and of the founder of the hospital Lord Save Us, 
the Bible was as necessary to every soul as food is to 
the body. 

‘“‘ Here is your benefactress,” said the physician. 

The Lady shook her bonneted head vivaciously. 

“I did not come,” she said, ‘‘to present myself as 
a philanthropist, Mr. Quint. I only wanted to see with 
my own eyes whether you were getting any better. 
What is the matter with you, doctor? ” She shook her 
finger at the physician, displaying her large thin hand 
in its black lace mitten. ‘‘ When we do good, you as 
a pious Christian should know, we simply do our 
duty.” She turned to her companion, a very tall, stiff 
personage, and whispered, but not so low that the 
others could not hear, ‘“ The man, I think, makes an 
excellent impression.” 

The physician now entered into an explanation of 
Emanuel’s ailments, pointing out the various wounds he 
had received; which seemed to please the old lady. He 
drew aside Emanuel’s shirt, and tapped the right side of 
his breast over the part of the lung that had been hurt. 
On Emanuel’s white skin was the mark of the blow 
vivid with all the colours of the rainbow. 

Since Quint had been in his care the physician con- 
sistently cut out everything that might bear upon the 


200 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


patient’s psychic malady. In her consultation with the 
physician before seeing Emanuel, the Lady had asked 
him whether he thought it would hurt the man if 
she cautiously turned the conversation upon that un- 
fortunate weakness which seemed to be his evil fate. 
The physician laughed. 

“I leave that to your judgment,” he said. ‘“ But I 
may as well tell you, it is no easy matter to discover 
the idée fixe, the peculiar maniac thought-system of 
paranoiacs. For some mysterious reason they are often 
extremely sly and intelligent in putting an observer off 
the track. Quint has just had some sad experience as 
a result of proclaiming his divine origin. So perhaps 
he will keep his conviction that he is the Messiah a secret 
for a while, or even deny that he is the Messiah.” 

When the physician had ended his account of Quint’s 
condition in the bedroom, the Gurau Lady gave him and 
her companion a look, and they left the room to visit 
other patients. 

Sister Hedwig remained, and moved a wicker-chair 
to within a little space of Emanuel’s bed. The 
Gurau Lady said ‘* No, thank you,” while at the same 
time seating herself in it. 

Often the lady would relate, sometimes even to per- 
sons of high rank, how Emanuel affected her on her 
first meeting with him. She invariably declared it was 
impossible to look that strange man in the eye without 
being profoundly moved, without being shaken to the 
depths of one’s soul, without a feeling of slight horror. 

“When I went to him,” she said, “I was curious. 
When I left him, I did not know what had happened to 


my soul.” 
* + * + * Fy * * 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 201 


The Gurau Lady began her conversation with the 
polite phrases usual in such circumstances. 

*‘ Are you satisfied with the care you are getting?” 

Emanuel nodded his head yes. 

“* Are you dissatisfied with anything at all? ” 

Emanuel shook his head no. 

Conversation came to a slight standstill. 

*“Tt’s shocking,” the lady went on, ‘how those 
wicked, rough people treated you. I heard the dis- 
trict attorney had taken the matter up, and you have 
already been cross-examined. We are supposed to be 
living in a well-ordered state. What will we be com- 
ing to if mobs are allowed to attack peaceful people 
with impunity? ” 

Quint lying with his hands crossed on the woollen 
bedspread listened with intently staring, but lowered, 
eyes. Now he raised his head, gave the lady’s face a 
long look, and began to speak in a moderate tone with- 
out the least trace of embarrassment. 

“Do you think that when a man rightly understands 
Christ’s teachings and His life and death, when he 
knows of nothing better and sublimer in life than to 
follow Christ’s teachings and imitate his life and death, 
do you think he can be in accord with the procedure of 
any tribunal of human judges, or, what is more, can 
ever appeal to it? ” 

“ Yet, I believe,” said the Lady, “that our Saviour 
said, ‘ There is no power but of God: the powers that 
be are ordained of God. Let every soul be subject 
unto the higher powers.’ Those men trespassed against 
God and the powers that be. So they ought to be 
properly punished.” 

“ Did not Christ sometimes say things in one con- 
nection that in another connection have a very different 


202 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


meaning? What is the most precious, the teach- 
ings of our Lord as written down by human hands? 
The earthly life of our Lord? Or the heavenly life of 
our Lord? ” 

** The heavenly life.” 

“That is what I think, too,” said Emanuel. “TI be- 
lieve that in the heavenly life the drossless light of the 
spirit shone. In Christ’s second life on earth, dross 
already obscured that holy light of the spirit. So how 
much more dross must there not be in the third life, 
in the printed pages of a book, which reproduces 
something related by men, heard by men, written down 
by men. Or are there persons who think that the glory 
enveloping the Son of God originates in this book? 
No, it merely contains a faint reflection of His glory.” 

The Lady felt a little ill at ease. Quint’s remarks 
seem somewhat dubious. 

“J think,” Emanuel continued, “ that the passage 
about the higher powers may, in a sense, be counted 
along with the dross. At any rate, it is meant for those 
men, the rulers as well as the ruled, who are excluded 
from the regeneration and belong to the kingdom of the 
dead. But I do not belong to the kingdom of the 
dead. My kingdom is not of this world.” 

The Lady suddenly looked at the Fool with in- 
tense curiosity. 

His shirt stood open at his throat. ‘The muscles of 
his neck quivered. His finely cut lips opened and closed 
gently under his reddish mustache and pointed beard. 
In the vein below his ear and the delicate veins of his 
pale temples his blood pulsed perceptibly. His eyes, 
though wide open, were not fixed upon the outer 
world. Their gaze was turned inward. 

“My kingdom is not of this world. In this world 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 208 


where the reward of sin became the sting of death, the 
strength of sin became the law. He that hath the 
understanding, let him understand. I am not under 
the strength of sin. Therefore I am not under the 
law. And therefore I seek not mine honour before the 
law. I seek in myself nothing but the honour of Him 
who sent me.” 

Thus, all of a sudden, the Gurau Lady had plainly 
set before her that comprehensive maniac thought- 
system, in which she had not believed. Since she was 
incapable of penetrating the peculiar form of the Quint 
dialectics, his mania seemed more monstrous than it 
actually was. She fairly shrank in terror. But 
the hot and cold waves that shivered down her spinal 
column were pleasant to her. She sought and found 
similar titillations in her religious philanthropies, 
though never before had she been so shaken. 

Emanuel Quint seemed neither ridiculous nor pitiable 
to her, neither a fool nor a sick man. The strong im- 
pression he unexpectedly made upon her was by no 
means weakened because he immediately, without cir- 
cumlocution, began to speak of his religious ideas. 
She went through the same experience as many others 
who had been enthralled by the strange enthusiast’s 
delusion. The sudden assumption in a man that he 
was no less than the Saviour stunned her, even though 
she denied the assumption. She got the illusion that 
the Saviour was near, and the modesty with which the 
Fool in Christ gave expression to his belief strengthened 
the illusion. 

To be sure, Quint had not roundly asserted that he 
was Christ arisen again. But in the Lady’s opinion 
the poor patient in his last statement had said no 
less than that, and her black bonnet began to quiver. 


204 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“I did not quite understand everything you said, 
Mr. Quint,” she began cautiously. “I am a poor 
old woman, and my head was never any too good. In 
my simplicity I think the powers that be have the right 
to judge and to punish. I do not know you well 
enough yet, Mr. Quint. I am especially ignorant of 
the story of your life and religious experiences. I 
know it is written that the Lord hid things from the 
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, unto 
them that are poor in the spirit and pure in heart. I 
know it well. I am also completely filled with what St. 
Peter said: ‘We have a sure word of prophecy; 
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and 
the daystar arise —’ ”’ 

*“*¢ In your hearts,’ ” Quint concluded. 

“Yes,” rejoined the lady, “in our hearts. But 
external signs will also appear when the Son sits in 
the clouds on judgment day on the right hand of the 
Father. Let us keep ourselves from snares and temp- 
tations, let us not fall into pernicious error.” 

She grew more and more excited as she spoke, and 
her voice quivered with heartfelt emotion. Quint let 
his hand glide lightly over her trembling hands with 
soothing gentleness. 

“God is a spirit,” he said, “ and they that worship 
Him shall worship Him in the spirit and in truth. 
Meditate upon this, dear lady. God is spirit. The 
holy men of God, as Peter said, are everywhere — and 
verily I am more than Peter was!— As long as the 
world has been in existence holy men of God have 
been preaching, led by the spirit of God. But the 
very word through which the light shines upon the 
earthly obscures the light, and insofar as the spirit 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 205 


killeth not the word, the word killeth the spint. But 
when holy men of God speak, we know whose children 
they are. God is a spirit. So we know to whom and 
of whom they say Father. The Father is spirit and 
they alone that are born again through the Holy Ghost 
will call Him Father and will be called the children of 
the Father. Not so they that are dead in the body 
and born again in the body on a judgment day. 

“Do not think that God is a God of the dead. As 
the Saviour revealed to us, He is a God of the living, 
not, the dead. Woe to them that sin against the spirit. 
They commit unforgivable sin in making an image of 
the Holy Ghost, in turning the Holy Ghost into an 
earthly king, a magician, a king enthroned on the 
clouds surrounded by winged angels carrying fiery 
scourges, a man who judges us and therefore neither 
hates nor loves us, who stands under the law, the law 
born of sin, who cannot be, and may not be, a father 
to us. For when was a father ever set in judgment 
over the life and death of his children? A father loves 
his children because his children are his blood. We 
are our Father’s blood because we pray, ‘ Our Father 
which art in heaven.? Our Father sits not in judg- 
ment over us. Neither justice nor injustice, but love, 
is between Him and us. And nobody sits enthroned 
on His right hand that is more than I am, I the son 
of man! Nobody sits on His left hand that is more 
than I am, or more than anyone that has been born 
again through Jesus Christ and included in the com- 
munity of the spirit. What do you all fear? Woe 
to them that spread lies as if the spirit were not spirit, 
but a gaoler of eternal destruction! Woe to them that 
came to torment and torture the world with the 
‘spirit!’ Verily, verily, I say unto you, I have un- 


206 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


locked the gates of hell, so strong is the power of the 
Father in me. There is no darkness into which the 
light of the spirit shall not penetrate. There is no 
poor wretch whom my love will not set free. They will 
all recognise the truth, and the truth will make them 
free. Why await ye the coming of the Lord? The 
mystery has been revealed! God is not far away! 
He is not in a remote country! God is here! God is 
with us! God is in me!” 

Later Emanuel Quint often developed the same line 
of thought so eminently characteristic of him. And 
the stiff-neckedness with which he maintained it was 
taken as a form of his mental ailment. The clergy 
saw nothing but danger to the dogmas of the church 
in his odd deductions. Subsequently the clergy were 
divided into two camps. The one camp saw danger 
in the fact that his reasoning and observations were 
prepossessing, even illuminating. The other, far 
larger camp did not take the trouble to penetrate into 
the logic of his foolish wisdom. Perhaps it was unable 
to. In this respect a wrong was done Quint in taking 
him for an out and out charlatan and cheat, who 
thought of nothing but his own advantage, who ex- 
ploited the never-failing credulity of the people, and 
who, like some hypnotists, spiritualists, and other jug- 
glers, cynically invested himself with the nimbus of the 
Saviour. 

The poor Fool in Christ was no such arch-imposter. 
And the Gurau Lady never took him to be one. She 
was of those who maintained that at the worst he was 
an honest, though misguided seeker of the Saviour. 
Sometimes, even in the presence of a number of people, 
she said; 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 207 


‘ Who knows but that he was a man who saw the 
light and your too-clever theologians could not under- 
stand him? ” 

As she sat there listening to Emanuel she held her 
smelling salts to her nose several times. His ideas 
quite unnerved her. She was profoundly shaken. 
Though a stout-hearted little woman with a fund of 
sound sense and humour, she had to struggle against 
a certain exuberance of feeling, and often regretted 
having displayed too much sentiment. 

After Quint had done speaking she felt as if a great 
light had suddenly burst forth and were shining upon 
her; as if veils had fallen away, and a final mystery 
were revealed; as if until now she had heard of the 
Saviour’s love only in sounding brass and tinkling 
cymbals, and were now for the first time feeling it in 
all its true glory, in its full significance; as if a hot 
ray from the heart of that strange yet familiar man had 
penetrated into her innermost being. Her brain 
reeled. She felt the throbbing of her heart in her 
throat. Had she not controlled herself by main 
force, she would actually have sunk down sobbing at 
the bedside of the poor Fool in Christ. 

But at the same instant she heard Emanuel give a 
hard little cough, and she saw the handkerchief he 
held to his mouth turn red. He indifferently shoved 
the handkerchief between the mattress and the frame 
of the bed. The Gurau Lady rose to leave. 

“You spoke too much, Mr. Quint,” she cried in 
sincere alarm, blushing to the roots of her hair like a 
young girl. “I should like to have listened to you 
a long time, but unfortunately it mustn’t be. Our 
physician is very strict and will take me to task.” 


208 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Sister Hedwig stepped in. She handed Emanuel 
some sliced lemon on a plate. Emanuel paid no atten- 
tion to her. 

“‘T trust this is not the last time we shall see each 
other, Mr. Quint,” said the Gurau Lady, holding out 
her hand to him. 

Emanuel let her hand rest in his, and looked into her 
face, nodding his head almost imperceptibly. Strands 
of his red hair fell over his pale, sunken, freckled face, 
on which shone a ray of the morning sun shimmering 
in through white curtains. 


* * * * * * * * 


Rustling up and down again between the Ascension 
and the way to Emmaus, the Lady kept repeating in 
that determined worldly tone for which she was known: 

“TI tell you, you must cure that poor man. Don’t 
leave a single thing undone that can be done for him, 
doctor. I will send fruit and wine for him.” And 
turning to the sister superior and some deaconesses, 
“Do your best for him. Don’t try to be saving of 
my funds.” 

“*So you really got him to speak?” the physician 
queried in astonishment. ‘“‘ That is remarkable. The 
whole week he never, not even remotely, touched upon 
any sort of religious topic either in my presence or the 
presence of any of the sisters.” 

““He merely read and wrote,” the sister superior 
explained, “ and scarcely answered us except when we 
had to speak to him about his illness. If we spoke 
about anything else, he would shake his head slightly, 
and smile a tired, kindly smile.” 


CHAPTER XII 


Tuer same day the Gurau Lady had guests to dinner, 
Brother Nathaniel, one of the large tenants on her 
estate, her bailiff Scheibler, and his wife. She got home 
late from her visit to the hospital, and her companion 
had to preside at table for a while. That lady could 
not contain herself. During the very first course she 
had to unburden herself by describing the wonderful 
impression Quint had made upon her mistress. 

When the Gurau Lady herself appeared at table 
a little later, they all realised that her companion had 
not exaggerated. ‘Though they had instantly checked 
their conversation about Quint, which they had car- 
ried on in suppressed tones, she of her own accord 
came back to the same subject as soon as greetings 
had been exchanged and everybody was again seated. 

“Tell me everything, everything you know about 
him, Brother Nathaniel.” 

She turned to the busily chewing apostle of home 
missions, whose thick-set figure was clad in a well- 
brushed black suit. } 

Brother Nathaniel quickly swallowed what he had 
in his mouth, wiped his bushy beard with his napkin, 
and began to speak. 

He told of his sermon in the village school, where 
he had first seen and spoken to Emanuel, and recalled 
certain details in their conversation. Turning to 
Scheibler he told how he had met his young nephew 
Kurt Simon the next morning, and how on their walk 

209 


210 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


together they had come upon Emanuel Quint on his 
knees near a haystack praying. 

As to the following incidents Brother Nathaniel was 
not particular to be very accurate. He did not touch 
upon their enthusiastic communion service, still less 
upon the strange act of baptism by which he ineradica- 
bly implanted in the breast of the carpenter’s son the 
sacred idea of a special mission. ‘That he kept a secret. 

When the Scharf brothers approached him about 
Quint, he wrote a letter to the Gurau Lady, though 
not without some regret and trembling because of the 
offence that Emanuel was everywhere giving. 

In the homes and at the tables of his Christian hosts 
the pious brother by no means spoke in those thunderous 
tones that he hurled from the pulpit. His voice was 
veiled to humility. When he had finished his account, 
he concluded: 

‘* May God lead that poor Christian brother back 
to truth if he has been misled, and may He forgive 
them that misled him, and misled him unintentionally. 
Satan’s power is too great. We must not cease to be 
on our guard against him every moment of the day 
and night. For it is clear Satan cannot hate anyone 
so violently as him who serves our Lord by day and 
night with all the ardour of glowing love. 

“JT have known Martin and Anton Scharf for 
years. They are the first proofs of His grace that 
the Lord gave me, unworthy minister of the word that 
I am. He willed that their souls should be awakened 
and led back to Christ through me. Now it seems 
the old wicked enemy has been playing his tricks with 
them. 

‘* A few days ago I asked them to visit me. They 
follow that misguided man. For hours I held up to 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 211 


them all the reasons against their strange opinion of 
Emanuel Quint, all the dangers of such an opinion. 
But they stuck to it — the strength of the spirit of the 
Lord was in him, and the power over life and death. 

“I did still more. I did what is the only thing to 
do in order to penetrate to the truth in Christ in such 
circumstances and in all questions of life—-I went 
with them in prayer before the Lord. Heaven grant 
that by now the force of error has been broken within 
them.” 

“Tell me, Brother Nathaniel,” said the bailiff, 
“what is the error by which this man or boy of whom 
you speak, this Emanuel Quant, or Quint, as you call 
him, is possessed? ” 

“My dear Mr. Scheibler,’? exclaimed the Gurau 
Lady, “have you never heard of the so-called false 
Messiah of Giersdorf?” Mr. Scheibler said he had 
not, and she continued: “He is a man who, pastor 
Schuch of Giersdorf in this letter here positively 
assures me, considers himself the Redeemer come back 
to earth again.” 

“And many poor misguided people, it seems, take 
him for that, too,” supplemented the Lady’s companion. 

“Why,” said the bailiff, utterly astonished, “ the 
thing’s inconceivable! ” 

Mrs. Scheibler, a feeling Christian, here put in her 
word. 

“Its a disgrace,” she cried, shaking her head. 
“It’s an outrage. J think it’s the worst blasphemy 
against the sublimest and the holiest. He’s probably 
a poor, crazy fellow, possessed of some horrible demon, 
and we should do everything we can to get him out of 
Satan’s clutches.” 

“But the strange thing is, Mrs. Scheibler,” the 


212 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Lady interposed, “that this Emanuel Quint by no 
means makes the impression of a crazy man.” 

“Well, then, how can he maintain such a monstrous 
absurdity ? ” 

‘Things of that sort prove that the day of all days 
is no longer far off,” said the bailiff, almost solemnly. 
‘What other name is there for so fearful a false 
prophet than anti-Christ? The days of the anti-Christ 
are beginning, as numerous signs of the times distinctly 
indicate. How can one doubt that the spiritual Baby- 
lon is not in full flower everywhere? ” 

“That is a dreadful word — anti-Christ — Mr. 
Scheibler,” said the Lady. ‘ Would we not be brand- 
ing a poor stray sheep of Jesus with too big and 
terrible a name in calling him anti-Christ? You have 
to see him to realise that anti-Christ is by far too hard 
a name for him. When he is quite well, I will invite 
him here.” 

“A teacher in the Riesengebirge, Brother Stoppe, 
writes something very remarkable to me,” said Brother 
Nathaniel after the roast was served. ‘‘ Emanuel Quint 
was in his home. He assures me that Quint himself 
never laid claim to supernatural powers, in fact Quint 
repeatedly declared that he had nothing to do with 
wonders or magic of any kind. Yet, Mr. Stoppe said, 
consciously or unconsciously, Quint undoubtedly em- 
anated a certain power. He subsequently convinced 
himself of it. For instance, Quint cured a lame man 
and saved an old woman’s soul by enabling her to die. 
That is more than lies within ordinary human power. 
Stoppe also writes that he himself never heard Emanuel 
Quint call himself Christ.” 

“The Giersdorf pastor says he did hear Quint posi- 
tively state that he was Christ,” said the Gurau 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 213 


Lady, holding a glass of white wine to her thin- 
lipped, slightly wrinkled mouth. After taking one 
or two hearty draughts, she continued, ‘“ Besides, I 
must say, sorry as I am for the peculiar man, he 
as it were indirectly confirmed his insane idea of being 
the Son of God. At any rate he said to me —I know 
he did —TI can hear him saying it —that he is more 
than St. Peter.” 

“For God’s sake! Then he’s worse than I be- 
lieved!” cried Brother Nathaniel, turning white beneath. 
his heavy beard. ‘Then I was deceived in the man. 
On account of my own experience of him and Brother 
Stoppe’s letter, I always felt there must be some mis- 
understanding. JI assumed that the people misunder- 
stood a pure, serious, sacred attempt to walk in Jesus. 
But it is impossible to hold that belief any longer.” 

Scheibler, by nature a mild man, regretted what he 
had thought and said of Quint in his first access of 
horror. 

“You are right,” he said turning to the Lady, 
who was staring into space meditatively. “A poor 
stray sheep is far from being an anti-Christ. We 
human beings are prone to be hasty. The seven- 
headed beast of blasphemy, it seems, is already in the 
world. For all that we must not break the rod on 
the back of any of our poor brethren. The judgment 
is God’s. In the poor man’s own interest I should like 
our friend Brother Nathaniel to try to bring the fool 
back from his folly. I mean he should go to him and 
try to impress his conscience with the pure, simple 
strength of the Gospel. He should represent to him 
the dangers threatening those that wander from the 
right path. He should say to him, ‘ You teach others, 
but fail to teach yourself! You glorify yourself with 


214 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


God, yet you dishonour God!’ He should pray with 
him and bring to his heart the true Christ, so that 
the true Christ in his unending grace and love should 
free the poor, bewildered false Christ from his dreadful 
madness. I am convinced the Lord will not withhold 
Himself from the poor, sinning man if he repents his 
sins.” 

“You must put to him clearly the consequences of 
his dreadful infatuation, Brother Nathaniel,” said the 
bailiff’s thin wife. “ You must call his attention to the 
fact that it is one thing to'do wonders by the strength 
of God, another thing to do wonders by the strength 
of hell. To be sure, the Bible says, ‘If ye have faith 
as a grain of mustard, ye shall say unto this moun- 
tain, Remove hence.’ It also says, ‘ Ask, and it shall 
be given you.’ And we know how you yourself, 
Brother Nathaniel, by your faith and your prayers have 
helped many a poor sick person whom the physicians 
gave up for lost. Our Lord distinctly said, ‘ What- 
soever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do ’—if 
repentance and contrition, which involve forgiveness, 
accompany the prayer. Such wonders we all know 
occur every day, every hour, among the believers, even 
though the world will not see them, will not hear them, 
will not admit them. But woe to him who by God’s 
grace can heal the sick or even raise the dead, if he 
therefore presumes to say he is God’s begotten Son, or 
merely that he is more than any one of the twelve 
apostles! And, Brother Nathaniel, tell him of Simon 
Magus, the sorcerer and false prophet,” she continued, 
speaking excitedly. ‘* Tell him the enemy performs the 
same sort of wonders to the destruction of them that 
produce the wonders and of them upon whom they are 
exerted. Tell him of the punishment for sorcery. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 215 


Simon bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that 
himself was some great one. And Peter said to him, 
‘Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy 
heart is not right in the sight of God.’ Tell him about 
eternal punishment, Brother Nathaniel —” 

The Gurau Lady intimated that she wanted to 
speak, and the bailiff’s wife immediately broke off. 

“I scarcely believe,” the Lady said, “that that 
would be the way to deal with Emanuel Quint. You 
would not accomplish anything. As I have to admit, 
he exerts a strange fascination. You cannot believe 
that a man who seems to be all peace and serenity is 
a tool of hell. And I do not hesitate to avow that 
I was devout in his presence and listened to him as 
I never did to anyone in my life. I seemed to be 
bewitched. His voice sounded like a heavenly instru- 
ment, and nothing about him seemed, as it should have, 
false, repulsive, or ridiculous. I think he denies hell.” 

The Lady rose from table, took the bailiff’s arm, 
and led the way to a lovely terrace ‘giving upon a 
spacious English lawn surrounded by trees. The castle 
stood in a large park full of fine old trees. Amid the 
singing of birds, in the dappled shadow of a chestnut 
roofing the terrace, the company drank its after-dinner 
coffee. 

“Tf he denied hell,” said Brother Nathaniel, strok- 
ing his unkempt yellowish beard with his coarse fingers, 
“that alone proves that he has strayed from the right 
path.” Brother Nathaniel’s small eyes began to 
gleam piercingly. ‘* Have we not the parable of the rich 
man and Lazarus? Do we not know from the 
Bible that the Son of man will come to judge the 
twelve tribes of Israel and all the nations inhabiting 
the world, the living and the dead? That he will say 


216 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to the sheep, ‘ Come to me, ye blessed of my Father, 
and to the others, ‘ Depart from me, ye that work in- 
iquity!*® The righteous shall shine like the sun, while 
the others, those which do iniquity shall be cast into 
a furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnash- 
ing of teeth.” 

Brother Nathaniel continued a long time in the same 
strain. ‘The perfume of freshly cut grass lying in 
the sun filled the air, and from all over came the merry 
din of the finches. 

The Lady remarked: 

“IT wish our zealous Brother Nathaniel had heard 
Emanuel Quint this morning when he spoke about God’s 
judgment, about Christ’s not being a judge, and the 
like.” She began to search her memory for the exact 
words of the Fool in Christ, and suddenly she recalled, 
*“* Nobody sits enthroned on His right hand that is more 
than I am, I the son of man! And nobody sits on ~ 
His left hand that is more than I am,” and so on. She 
turned pale, and jumped up from her wicker-chair. 
Tripping up and down the terrace she cried repeatedly, 
** After all this Quint is a remarkable character. Think 
of it, these were his words, ‘I have unlocked the gates 
of hell, so strong is the power of the Father in me!? ” 

Brother Nathaniel wanted to be off to the hospital 
that instant to visit the wretched man—thus he 
thought of Quint. But the Gurau Lady absolutely 
forbade him. She told him that even her short inter- 
view with Emanuel had made him cough up blood. 

“ But I shall not have a single peaceful moment until 
I see that poor deluded boy and lead him back into the 
right way.” 


* * % * * * * * 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST Q17 


About two weeks passed before Brother Nathaniel 
was permitted to visit his baptismal child, now his 
child of sorrows. He did not find him in bed, as when 
the Gurau Lady had visited him, but seated in a 
wicker-chair at an open door giving upon a balcony. 
The morning was warm and a little showery. Emanuel 
wore the hospital patient’s blue-striped cotton jacket. 

He was moved to tears by the sight of Brother 
Nathaniel. 

As for Brother Nathaniel, he had determined, no 
matter what happened, to be very severe with his 
former brother in Christ, and he fought down his 
emotion upon seeing Emanuel again. He would have 
Emanuel observe that he had come not for a mere visit, 
but upon a far weightier errand. So, at last to rid 
himself of his pricks of conscience, he immediately 
began to expostulate. 

“ Dear brother in Christ, I must first unbosom myself 
of all that has troubled me on your account many days 
and nights. I have spoken of it in my prayers to 
the Lord our Saviour, and he finally put it in my heart 
that I should go to you and call you back to the pure, 
simple spirit of the gospels. It is true, you seemed 
to me to be one of the elect, one of those belonging by 
nature to the circumcised. But I see the enemy has 
followed in your footsteps, and has led you — forgive 
me!— aside from the way of eternal salvation to the 
broad way of destruction. Now, since nothing has the 
strength of salvation except it be begun with prayer 
and concluded with prayer, let us supplicate our 
Father together, dear brother, before we commence our 
war upon Satan, who, as you know, always sows tares 
among the wheat.” 

And Brother Nathaniel recited the Lord’s prayer. 


218 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Emanuel did not fold his hands. He held his eyes 
fixed upon Brother Nathaniel questioningly, and 
seemed not to be praying with him. | 

With a mighty arching of his broad chest and drawing 
a deep, full breath Brother Nathaniel equipped him- 
self for the connected presentation of his entreaty. 

First, he told in detail everything he had heard about 
Emanuel from people who had spoken or written to 
him directly. He did not refrain from deprecating 
Emanuel’s way of imitating Christ, and spoke of the 
secret baptism for which, he said, he was responsi- 
ble, though its one meaning could have been to con- 
secrate Emanuel in all humility as a servant of God. 

“But now,” he cried, “you have wofully suc- 
cumbed to arrogance and presumption! ” 

He charged Emanuel with having misled many 
poor souls, assuming it to have been proved that 
Emanuel had sought by every possible means to gain 
followers and ensnare souls. After several starts he 
came to the most dangerous point. 

“IT can scarcely believe it,” he said, “ yet I cannot 
doubt it either. I hear rumours on all sides. It is the 
thing for which they attacked you. Or why did they 
attack you? ” 

“ Because I avoided evil,” Quint replied, “ and be- 
cause I exposed a very little bit of the mystery of the 
kingdom. Do you not know, dear brother, that the 
Scriptures say, ‘He that departeth from evil maketh 
himself a prey to all?’ ” 

“But you admit,” Brother Nathaniel rejoined, 
“that they attacked you because the devil moved you 
to blaspheme our Saviour, to blaspheme by saying 
something I can scarcely repeat, that you are more than 
Peter and nothing less than He Himself, the Lord, the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 219 


Christ, the Son of God. Tell me, is the report I heard 
correct? ” 

*“‘ First, Nathaniel, my brother in Christ, you tell me, 
you who once baptised me with water, if I in return 
should baptise you with the Holy Ghost? ” 

This utterly alarmed the poor lay-brother. 

“No!” he exclaimed. ‘ Don’t speak to me of bap- 
tism! Spare me your baptism! I have enough to 
repent, enough to do to wipe from the book of my 
sins that morning on which I in my blind trustfulness 
sprinkled you with water. I don’t want your bap- 
tism.”’ 

Nathaniel sprang up from his chair. 

Emanuel turned white to the very finger-tips of his 
long, nobly formed hand, and gazed into the open, his 
lips trembling. 

Nathaniel had had much experience in life, and had 
dealt with many sick, even insane persons. Pious 
Christians summoned him to pray at the bedside of 
sick sons, daughters, mothers, or fathers, and by his 
ceaseless prayer, he had soothed a number of crazed 
patients to rest. But here the horrible mask of mad- 
ness itself seemed to be grinning at him. Here was 
a disciple, a friend, to whom from the very first his 
soul had gone out in a warm wave of feeling. And 
dreadful words came from the mouth of that friend, 
passed over his lips easily, simply, unprovoked by ex- 
citement — mad words so gruesome in their hardness 
that Nathaniel was reminded of hard, dead masks of 
stone before which he himself almost turned to stone. 

“ Emanuel!” he cried at last, no longer severe, but 
full of compassion. ‘* Emanuel,” he besought him, 
“turn from the way you are going if only for my sake, 
for me from whom God will demand your lost soul on 


220 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the day of days. You spoke of the mystery of the 
kingdom. My hair is standing on end, Emanuel. Let 
us pray that God remove from you this spirit of mental 
darkness. The mystery of the kingdom is the Lord’s. 
Our Saviour will reveal it to them that wait, to them that 
wait in humility, as He promised, when He will return, 
not in the flesh, but in all His glory. He will then re- 
veal everything to us. Now, do you wipe from your 
soul the stain of the evil spirit, the canker-worm, the 
lying spirit of the arch-liar, who makes you believe that 
you have discovered the mystery of the Lord. Set your 
soul free from that canker-worm. There are many be- 
side you who go about saying they alone have been ad- 
mitted to such mysteries. I have seen them with my own 
eyes and spoken to them. A number of them have been 
screaming and raving for years behind the bars of the 
insane asylum. 

“Emanuel, let us pray that God spare you the like 
fate. Bethink yourself that vou are Emanuel Quint, 
son of a poor carpenter in Giersdorf and nothing else, 
the worst, the least, the unworthiest servant of your 
Lord.” 

Emanuel, whose features by this time had regained 
their composure, smiled, and shook his head gently. 

“Come, don’t be obstinate, let us pray!” Nathaniel 
repeated. 

But the Fool in Christ said: 

** When a man is in God, as God is in him, he does not 
pray. ‘To whom should he pray?” 

Brother Nathaniel’s terrors were renewed. The 
coarse hands of the former tiller of the soil were already 
folded for prayer. He let them drop slowly, and stared 
in stupefaction at the tall, thin, pale patient. He 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 221 


caught up his old worn slouched hat apparently with 
the intention of leaving at once. 

But Emanuel Quint kept his eyes fixed upon him and 
smiled his former faint smile, now tinged with an expres- 
sion of bitter renunciation. 

*¢ T have come more and more to understand the judg- 
ment of the Son of God in a special way and to see that 
wherever He appears the world is immediately without 
His instrumentality divided into two camps. My 
mother came to me and wrung her hands and begged 
me to desist from my madness. But I know I am not 
full of sweet wine, or weak-minded, or foolish of heart, 
or arrogant, or deceiving. I know I am walking in the 
footsteps of the Saviour. 

*“¢ He that hath the understanding, let him understand. 
My feet step in the marks of the feet of the Son of man. 
I speak words of the Son of God as the Father put them 
into my heart to say. But you come to me from all 
sides crying and screaming, ‘ You are mad!’ 

“They let my mother in to see me. She told me how 
earnestly she hoped my miserable experiences — the 
handcuffs, the jail, the contempt of the people, the at- 
tack at night, the abuse of me, and the exhortation of 
good persons — would make me wiser. No, I have not 
become wiser, no wiser than the Father that is in me. 

“JT do not pray! Neither did the disciples of my 
brother Jesus, the disciples of the Son of man, pray. 
And the disciples of John came to Jesus saying, ‘ Why 
do we fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?’ And they 
insisted, although He had said, ‘ Your Father knoweth 
what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.’ Yet 
they insisted that He teach them to pray, until He gave 
them the Lord’s prayer, a prayer which is not so much 
a prayer as a source of living water, 


222 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


* Because I spoke to you of the light under the 
bushel, of the grain of mustard seed, of the treasure hid 
in a field, in brief, of the mystery of the kingdom of 
God, you think my soul has been clouded by the evil 
spirit. But I say unto you, I have found the treasure 
hid in the field, and if I possess anything, I will give it 
all that I may keep this field in which the treasure that I 
have found is hid. I will give it all, Brother Nathan- 
iel, for I was a merchantman seeking goodly pearls. 
And when I found the best, the most precious pear! 
in that hidden treasure, I knew I should gladly give up 
everything I have to keep the pearl of the treasure hid 
in the field. Understand me, Brother Nathaniel, I 
should give up everything for it without hesitation, joy- 
fully, for though I win thee and the whole world, what 
availeth me, if I must therefore lose that pearl of the 
treasure hid in the field? I will give up all for it, 
gladly, even my life, Brother Nathaniel.” 

While Emanuel quietly, clearly, slowly enunciated his 
doctrine, Brother Nathaniel stared at him as if he were 
Satan himself. He grew helplessly confused, clapped 
his hand to his brow, and crushing his hat in both 
hands rushed from the room. 


CHAPTER XIII 


Few of Quint’s followers remained together after the 
night of that unhappy descent upon them. Schwabe 
lay with a broken leg in the district hospital. Several 
days later, when Bohemian Joe learned of his plight, 
he visited him. Schwabe inquired for Emanuel, and 
asked whether he had fared as badly as himself. Bo- 
hemian Joe told him that Emanuel was sick in his own 
home. 

In his delirium Schwabe had raved about Emanuel 
Quint day and night. Though his fever was not severe 
and soon disappeared, he remained as excited as before. 
Often his nurse heard him muttering prayers in a semi- 
wakeful state. From the day he watched Emanuel in 
the old woman’s house Schwabe loved the Fool in Christ. 
Even had his imagination not been fired and misdirected 
to religious hallucinations, he would have been devoted to 
him life and soul. 

Bohemian Joe had perhaps conceived no less strong an 
attachment for the strange visionary in Christ. But so 
far his curiosity as to where it would all lead and his in- 
born love of adventure still outweighed his vacillating 
faith. 

“ Schwabe, what do you say to our going back to 
our mountains now? ” Bohemian Joe asked. 

Schwabe shook his head emphatically. 

The gypsy was not a little impressed by the way in 
which he found his jolly companion — with a crucifix 
at his side and an open Bible on his knees, which he read 

223 


224 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


spelling out the words. And what was more, he observed 
an incomprehensible change in him. 

The tailor urged Joe to become converted and ex- 
amine his soul and repent. With an ecstatic expres- 
sion of bliss he declared he himself was on the road to 
forgiveness. He said he was thoroughly repentant and 
had resolved to lead a pure life in Christ. Good-bye 
forever to smuggling and crooked business of any sort. 

_ © Promise me, Joe,” he said, “that you, too, won’t 
defile your poor soul any more by making money dis- 
honestly and carrying on unlawful trade. Stop do- 
ing such things. Don’t send your soul to perdition. 
I tell you, I am so happy since God sent me this new 
spirit. And since he thought me worthy of this trial 
—my broken leg, I mean —I tell you, the spirit has 
come upon me with a certainty I cannot doubt. 
Though I he here quietly, held tight in a plaster cast, 
my heart leaps with joy.” 

Bohemian Joe was at a loss what to reply, and 
Schwabe continued: 

“Take my word for it, Joe. Unless you are en- 
tirely blinded, you will partake of things that were 
scarcely ever partaken of by any man. Believe me or 
don’t believe me, but I who am lying here say to you, 
he for whose sake I am lying here with a broken leg 
dis no other than He whose second coming was promised 
to us.” 

Joe now made bold to speak. He gave an account 
of what he had done for Quint with his fists, discreetly 
passing over a number of things. 

“Your good deed will surely be remembered in 
heaven,” said the tailor, and proceeded to tell of the 
many vivid dreams he had had of Quint. He inter- 
larded his narrative with unintelligible words from the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 225 


Revelation of St. John, acquired partly from the Scharf 
brothers, partly from his own reading. 

It is well known how dangerous to simple-minded peo- 
ple may be the reading of this Revelation — a mysti- 
fication rather than a revelation. It would not be un- 
interesting to make a study of its disastrous influence 
upon men’s minds throughout the history of Chris- 
tianity. Suffice it here to cite the great Miinster 
Frenzy, when the Anabaptists imagined they could build 
up the New Jerusalem in a whirl of orgies — orgies in 
which the Anabaptist movement culminated and was 
engulfed. 

Schwabe spoke of the Son of God, whom he had seen 
in his dreams with eyes like flames of fire and feet of 
brass and a face none other than Quint’s. He also in- 
terjected remarks about the hidden manna that he had 
eaten, intimating with an air of mystery that he was of 
those who knew the secret that Quint concealed. ‘* He 
that hath an ear,” he repeated often without much rel- 
evancy, shaking his finger —an imitation of the ec- 
static outbursts of Anton Scharf, which came over him, 
as they thought, with the strength of the Holy Ghost, 
‘“‘ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
unto the churches.” 

“And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that 
sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him; 
and he went forth conquering and to conquer.” 

These and similar passages Schwabe jumbled to- 
gether until the hospital orderly rudely interposed, and 
drove Joe from the ward. 

% * % * * * = x 

Hidden in a cornfield, the larks trilling over his head, 
Bohemian Joe lay stretched on the ground under the 
blue roof of the sky, meditating upon what he had seen 


226 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


and heard, upon the strange, the incomprehensible 
metamorphosis of his comrade Schwabe. He could not 
keep from questioning, all in secret, whether his friend 
was quite right in his “upper story.” 

But mystery and promise and the chase after an il- 
lusion are natural even to healthy minds, so also is the 
desire to settle one’s ever-present indefinite faith upon 
some definite object on which to feed and grow large. 
Bohemian Joe, therefore, despite his doubts felt in- 
clined to regard the change in his friend as the effect 
of divine intervention. At the same time he began to 
long to see Emanuel again. 

He went to Quint’s home. When he appeared in the 
dark of the night, Quint’s father and brother repaid 
him for his vigorous defence of Emanuel with a hail 
of stones and abuse. 

This did not anger Bohemian Joe. He merely 
sighed, and when out of range of the stones and oaths, 
stood irresolute for a long time. It came hard to him, 
harder than he had expected, to have to forego a meet- 
ing with Emanuel. Becoming conscious of this feeling, 
he suddenly realised he was tied to Emanuel by in- 
visible bonds. In the midst of these reflections it oc- 
curred to him to try to find the wheelwright, who had 
seen Quint on the evening of the raid. It was a comfort 
at least to be able to talk about Emanuel and perhaps 
learn what had become of Schubert and John and the 
Scharf brothers. 

Made wise by his previous experience Bohemian Joe 
did not venture into the wheelwright’s shop, but first 
made inquiries of an old woman hobbling by. He was 
grieved to hear that the wheelwright’s master had turned 
him out of his house neck and crop for the part he had 
taken in the night’s event. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 227 


Bohemian Joe spent the night in a haystack in the 
open field. The next morning he arose very early, and 
went to the House of Emmaus to inquire about Martin 
and Anton Scharf of the host. He found him mow- 
ing hay in his orchard behind the inn. Slightly rais- 
ing his elaborately embroidered cap from his bald pate, 
he told Joe that he had received a letter from Martin 
Scharf from a certain mill, which stood by itself on a 
brisk little stream down in the valley. Martin invited 
him to prayer-meeting, which, he said, they could hold 
at the mill without fear of being molested. 

After taking some bread and butter and thin coffee, 
Joe at once set out for the mill. He did not reach it 
until evening. On nearing the lonely house, he could 
hear above the splashing and swishing of the wheel, the 
singing of pious hymns. The congregation was in a 
little room, the window of which looked out upon the 
wheel and the drained bed of the stream. There were 
the Scharf brothers, the lean miller, the discharged 
wheelwright, the weaver Schubert, blacksmith John, and, 
strangely enough, Martha Schubert. 

Bohemian Joe had never in his life been given so en- 
thusiastic a reception... They paid no heed to the thick 
layer of filth that had eaten into the skin of his flat, 
ugly, brown face, they were not afraid of the vermin 
in his dark, matted hair. They embraced him and 
kissed him as a brother, as one they had been anxiously 
expecting, as one arisen from the dead. 

When the first joy of the meeting was over they be- 
gan to sing exultantly, “ Now give thanks to the 
Lord! ” 


* * * * * * * % 


All sorts of suspicions were afterward cast upon the 
doings in the sequestered mill. The miller, a widower 


228 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of thirty-five, who had lived many years in Brazil, 
was said to be a disreputable man, once implicated in a 
murder near Breslau, about which horrible stories of a 
fantastic nature had been circulated. But in the course 
of a long trial nothing could be proved against him. 
He had not lived happily with his wife, and one day 
she was found floating in the stream. It was proved 
that she had suffered from acute melancholy, which 
drove her to suicide. The miller Straube was certainly 
an eccentric person. He read books, seemed to have 
no great liking for people in general, was taciturn and 
distrustful. A deep fold of bitter suffering ran from 
his nostrils to the corners of his mouth. No further 
qualities are required to ruin a person’s reputation. 

It was said that at the meetings in the mill vile 
scenes and orgies were enacted by Quint’s followers — 
those peculiar scenes which have been re-enacted again 
and again among Christian sects — and that a number 
of profligate women took part in them. On the whole 
the allegation is false. Never, for instance, not even re- 
motely, did it occur to any of those assembled in the 
mill to put out the lights suddenly, and cry out to the 
brothers and sisters groping about in the dark, “ Be 
fruitful and multiply!” 

At the miller’s suggestion they called themselves 
“The Brethren of the Valley.” They had community 
of goods — which, it is true, comes dangerously near 
being community of wives — and lived from a common 
treasury entrusted to Martin Scharf. 

In the intoxication of simplicity, of spiritual and 
intellectual poverty, in the intoxication of want, misery, 
and fear, of sin and purification, of strife, of the un- 
usual deed, and the desire to rise up from the slough, 
in the intoxication of seeking and waiting, of sanctifica- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 229 


tion and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, but above all in 
the intoxication of love, they had mutually convinced 
one another that the Saviour had appeared, and the New 
Jerusalem was at hand. They were the messengers of 
the glad tidings, they were those who knew. And this 
brought the added intoxication of secrecy. 

To declare and demonstrate that all these people 
were fools is, from a certain superior point of view, 
by no means difficult, no more difficult than to prove 
that they were narrow-minded and uneducated. But it 
is not our aim to judge. It is our aim to understand 
and forgive. 

These men found nothing remarkable in one another. 
But a man of mature fine intellect and keen observation 
would have recognised in them the truly disinherited of 
the earth. He would have discerned that dangerous 
fever which with shifting chimeras, now heavenly, now 
hellish, compels either recovery or death. 

Their conscious spiritual life was dominated by a 
yearning for life, by a many years’ waiting and hoping 
in unspeakable everyday monotony. Suddenly their 
patience gave out. They could no longer wait for the 
final fulfilment of their deferred passionate desires, 
their inclinations and needs. It was like a mirage be- 
fore the eyes of weary, thirsty travellers in the desert. 
Suddenly the mirage conjures up broad alluring lakes 
and shadowy forests, reviving all their life forces dead- 
ened by resignation. Passionate yearning and hope 
again spring up in their breasts. 

What was remarkable was their faith in Emanuel 
Quint. 

But faith is always incomprehensible except to him 
who shares it with the faithful. The presumption, 
therefore, is that the perverse faith of the Valley 


230 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Brethren was an absurdity, and the presumption must 
suffice. However, even among higher types of men, the 
representative and mediator of the divine is a higher 
type, but he is a man and nothing else. God remains 
mute to us unless he speaks through men. 

The history of religions proves that the Deity has 
never come down to us except in the God-man, and the 
only divine heritage we have is what such a God-man 
is able to comprehend of the Deity. 

No one wants to remain always and forever unan- 
swered when he speaks to a Being. We prayed to our 
own father before we prayed to God. We humanise 
God with the word father. The Catholics prefer to 
pray to saints because saints are deified men. For the 
same reason they pray to the mother of the Saviour. 
In her own body she felt the pains of every earthly 
mother, and so centred upon herself the full naive 
trust of the suffering mothers and the children of 
mothers. The Protestant, too, prays with greater fer- 
vour to Jesus the Saviour, than to God, because God is 
far beyond his reach, while Jesus is humanly near. 

An invisible God may be feared, but he is not loved. 
On the other hand, the human mediator is loved, and 
the unfathomable love concentrated upon Jesus radi- 
ates into the cold dark of the invisible, warms the 
strange Godhead with its breath, and, declaring itself 
a reflection of God, holds out a promise of infinite love. 

It is true, the faith in Quint was neither unmixed 
with doubt nor of the same degree of intensity among 
all the Brethren of the Valley. Martin was strongest 
of all in his faith. The quiet man, at times grim and 
sombre, often sat for hours, even days, without saying 
a word, completely engrossed in thought. But when 
he did speak, his silence was explained. He had 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 231 


been pondering over the deep significance of some 
word from the mouth of Emanuel Quint. Anton 
Scharf was usually in a state of passionate faith, 
though sometimes he succumbed to grave doubts. 
Schubert often shook his head as if he harboured certain 
scruples. As for the miller, no one knew to what ex- 
tent he believed in Quint. The miller was inclined to 
try experiments in communism and Socialistic Utopias. 
He came of a very bigotted family, and his father, also 
a miller, had ended his days in an insane asylum. John, 
the blacksmith, in his attitude toward Quint was domi- 
nated by strong suggestion. Nevertheless, he often put 
shy questions, which betrayed that he was not free from 
pangs of conscience. 

The strength of a thing, the strength of a soul, of an 
error, of a belief, right or wrong, develops with the 
resistance it encounters. The Valley Brethren — there 
were also a few sisters — were very well aware that 
their little community was surrounded by the hostile 
ocean of the world. This consciousness increased their 
self-esteem, by no means overbalanced by the tradi- 
tional humility of Christian sects, which they, too, 
strove to attain. The Lutheran phrase, “bliss only 
through belief,” had to serve to conquer moments of 
weakness, when faith in Quint and his divine mission 
wavered. 

The Valley Brethren kept up their doings for months. 
Schwabe turned up among them, also his brother-in-law, 
the weaver Zumpt. One of the most active of the 
Brethren was the blacksmith John. The first steps 
toward the formation of a well-knit community had 
been taken in Zumpt’s house, when a church treasury 
was started, and Quint and his folly continued to be 
financed most touchingly. The Scharf brothers con- 


232 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


tributed all that was left of their cash. Blacksmith 
John sold his smithy, and put a part of the returns in 
the treasury. Martin administered the funds, which 
soon reached a very large amount for such poor peo- 
ple, and the constant influx of smaller contributions 
kept adding to the sum. 

One of the Brethren was a former member of the 
Salvation Army, a very scantily clad “ Captain,” about 
thirty years of age, still wearing the faded insignia 
of his rank. He came from the vicinity of Brom- 
berg. Before joining the Salvation Army he had 
served several terms for fraudulent practises and had 
been “saved”? by some women officers of the Army. 
Dibiez, a good-natured fellow, was what the alienists 
call an inferior type. One day he had appeared at 
the mill, as usual doing that mild form of begging 
which consists in offering “The War Cry ” for sale. 
The Valley Brethren seized the occasion for making 
him one of their own. Dibiez proved to be very 
useful. He not only brought them the systematised 
orgiasm of the Salvation Army, its songs, and its watch- 
words, but also many a good bit of advice for their 
future organisation. The Salvation Army had em- 
ployed him in widely separated districts in Germany, and 
he greatly broadened the Brethren’s narrow horizon by 
telling of his experiences, of the vast number of men 
and women he knew, all of whom were listening for the 
cry, “Christ is arisen!” He soon obtained a sort of 
practical leadership among the Brethren, although they 
very decidedly excluded all the childish soldier tom- 
foolery of the Salvation Army. One day they took his 
coat and badges behind the mill and burned them. 

To conceive the spiritual atmosphere in which the 
Valley Brethren lived, one must transport oneself to a 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 238 


time when emigration was restricted, and there were no 
steam or electric railroads. For though the Brethren 
actually lived in this age of steam and electricity, very 
few of them had learned to know anything outside the 
narcotic choke-damp of their native soil. 

Sufficient recognition has not been given the signifi- 
cance of the imagination in the life of every man, es- 
pecially the simple-minded man. Imagination is a man’s 
cloak. Imagination is the thing that nourishes the 
intellect, the thing upon which man’s soul feeds, The 
soul of even the driest, the hardest man, as naturally 
as the lungs draw in air, fetches sustenance from the. 
imagination, even though he fights it down and belit- 
tles it. And if a man were to succeed in stifling his 
imagination, his intellect, his soul would suffocate to 
death. In the realm of man’s imagination live his fel- 
low-men, the world, God, his wife, his children. 
Heavens and hells hover in his imagination. Every in- 
dividual is enveloped in a gay, fruitful cloud, which he 
sees about himself, but not about his neighbour, though 
in reality his neighbour is also enveloped in a similar 
fruitful cloud of fancies. 

The greatest ideal tie of a social character is a 
thought held in common. This is a fact well known to 
those who have tried to weld a multiplicity of human be- 
ings into one manageable whole. Subjugators of this 
kind, founders of states, natural rulers, make use of 
individuals who, gifted with a fanatical imagination, 
possess faith in their own dreams, demand that same 
faith from others, and succeed in obtaining it. Thus, 
among the masses is established that common sanctuary 
for the preservation of which they soon come to think 
no sacrifice is too costly, and they cling to their idea for 
long periods. 


234 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The spiritual life of civilised peoples resembles a huge 
spring drawn upon by the imagination and fed by the 
waters of the heavens, not from one official source by 
any means. The spring suffers from eternal floods. 
Great masses of humanity, though grouped about the 
one imaginary sanctuary, constitute numerous sects 
each grouped about its own temple, its own gods, and 
other ideal creations. The formation of sects, strife 
among sects, sectarian beliefs, and sectarian progress 
are a distinguishing feature of modern cultural life. 

The sect of the Valley Brethren, with Quint as the 
secretly arisen Saviour, with its fantastic belief in the 
approach of the millennium, at the basis of which was 
a conception two thousand years old, resembled those 
that had arisen in countless numbers throughout the 
long middle ages. Even in the nineteenth century sects 
prospered the germ of which was a much madder de- 
lusion, a delusion often combined with deception on 
the part of some hysterical leader. Remember Joseph 
Smith’s magic spectacles, the “ Urim and Thummim,” 
and his revelation of the Mormon bible. Mormonism 
was impossible except in the most practical, and withal 
the most adventurous part of the world, America. 

The Valley Brethren were more purely and pro- 
foundly rooted in the ancient Christian-European soil of 
faith. A delusion, it is known, can seize whole nations, 
all the more so small communities such as the Valley 
Brethren. It is a psychic fever constantly height- 
ened by contagion. Children, love one another! A 
common faith, a common delusion nourish a common 
flame of love, which illumines, warms, or consumes, 
as the case may be. Sometimes its flame burns up 
idols and temples. ‘The Brethren prayed, had visions, 
interpreted dreams, and made confessions of sin. Sick 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 235 


people came to the mill, and the Brethren thought 
they helped them by the laying on of hands. Herrn- 
hut pamphlets, Scriptural verses, and text books found 
their way into the mill, and, like the Bible, furnished 
the Brethren with passages for oracular purposes. 
Some persons, of course, joined not so much impelled 
by an inner need as voluntarily deluding themselves, be- 
cause the delusion gave an unexpected sublimity to their 
existence. ‘There were others again who were fasci- 
nated by the charm of mystery. 

Dibiez, Anton, and Martin, blacksmith John, and 
miller Straube formed a committee, and often withdrew 
into a back room in the mill for special consultations. 
Here, above the rushing of the wheel, the belief of the 
Valley Brethren assumed its fastest form, though later, 
at his trial, the miller confessed that, strange to say, he 
had both believed and not believed. In a search of 
the premises a manuscript in Dibiez’s handwriting con- 
taining the confession of faith of the Valley Brethren 
was found in the drawer of the table around which the 
conferences were held. 

It differed from the general Protestant confession 
of faith in only a few points, in articles seven to ten. 
The seventh article read: ‘* We believe in the powers 
and gifts of the everlasting gospel, this is, in the 
gift of faith, belief in spirits, power of healing, 
tongues, interpretation of tongues, in the power of 
wisdom, mercy, and brotherly love.” Article eight: 
“ We believe that the mystery of the kingdom has not 
yet been revealed. We believe and we know that the 
hour of revelation is at hand. God hath sent his Son 
into the world. Verily he hath no form nor comeliness, 
and they esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and af- 
flicted. There are those among us to whom the Holy 


236 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Ghost has granted to see him with their eyes. He will 
proclaim the mystery. He is one of the most despised 
of men, but we praise his name, Emanuel.” 

The ninth article also is important. “ We believe in 
the establishment of the New Jerusalem, in the millen- 
nium in Christ’s dominion on earth in heavenly glory. 
And we believe that we, assembled here, in watching and 
praying, will not die in the body before the Lord ful- 
fils His promise.” | 

The Brethern buried themselves in the Bible. Those 
that could, read aloud the Gospels, the Epistles, or 
the Revelation of St. John. They made search in the 
New and the Old Testaments, and everything they found 
dove-tailed, of course, most fascinatingly and_sur- 
prisingly, into a confirmation of their mad belief. In 
their seekings they prayed for the light of knowledge, 
and Satan gave their interpretations, usually false, 
the secure peace of truth. In the opinion of the 
Brethren their secluded life was truly apostolic in its 
daily sanctification. Every day they performed the 
ceremony of communion, and before each meal in 
memory of the Last Supper they drank wine from a 
certain goblet. When this became known, it aroused 
especial indignation. The mitigating circumstance is 
that the Brethren did it in a genuine ecstasy and in 
that simplicity which believes in wonders and which 
sometimes transforms a foolish act of the poor in spirit 
into an act finding favour and forgiveness with God. 

Had anyone observed the Valley Brethren at their 
devotions, he would have been reminded of the truly 
pious emotion portrayed in German Gothic sculpture, 
or in the bas-reliefs in the Naumburg Cathedral. 
Painters and sculptors of religious subjects would have 
found a collection of wonderful old models from the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 237 


lower classes, sturdy and true-hearted, who might have 
inspired them with some. of that pious simplicity and 
strength which is so irresistibly convincing and uplift- 
ing in the German works of the middle ages. 

The Valley Brethren naturally did much theorising 
concerning the mystery of the kingdom — would it be 
this way or that way? The active, unemployed imagi- 
nation of the congregated men would not permit of a 
patient waiting for the fulfilment of their ardent hope. 
Without admitting it to themselves they had staked their 
all upon that fulfilment as upon a card; and they knew 
they should forfeit their all were they to lose the game 
they were playing. Naturally they asked questions 
about the money they had invested and gave open ex- 
pression to their concern. Their hearts still hung upon 
their capital, and the only appeasement of their anxiety 
was the thought of reimbursement in the millennium. 

A feeling of jealousy asserted itself, a pitiful manifes- 
tation among people all of whom considered themselves 
of the elect. The first blissful millennium in store for 
them was nothing more than the old beloved world of 
this earth where, according to the promise, the first 
would be last and the last would be first. That is why 
the idea of the millennium is most popular among the 
disinherited in this world. They substitute for their 
enforced renunciation a sort of voluntary action, and 
repay themselves a hundredfold with the fullness of 
material life, which they profess to have renounced. 
They repay themselves in earthly currency, though 
“all is vanity.” It is natural, then, that each one of 
those poor wretches secretly desired to be the first and 
not the last. 

The Valley Brethren had stepped across into the un- 
usual. Their existence no longer jogged along in the 


238 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


habitual rut of their daily routine. They inspirited 
themselves with ill-understood sentences from the Bible, 
such as: “ No man, having put his hand to the plough, 
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” 
They had been uprooted, and their constant singing 
of hymns to the accompaniment of the rushing of the 
wheel helped to remove the solid ground from beneath 
their feet and detach them from all earthly things. 

One song they intoned more frequently than any of 
the others. It was a song of tears, a veritable debauch 
of tears, endless stanzas of tears. It was like grey, 
dripping, trickling, drenching rain. 

“Tears and tears and naught but tears 
Is the Christian’s life on earth. 
He whose soul to God adheres 
Walks in tears bereft of mirth. 
Tears we eat and tears we drink, 
Tears till in the grave we sink. 


Mention but the name of man, 
You will mention tears again.” 


And so it continued in the same strain. The last 
stanza, however, went: 


“Tears, sweet tears, of heaven blest, 

To an end this plaint I bring. 

One thing still let me attest, 
Tears the Christian’s virtue sing. 

Shedding many tears of pain 

Makes bliss easy to attain; 
For each tear dropped here below 
Is a heavenly crown you sow.” 


After the tears came the exultation. 


“ Haste thee, O my soul, repair, 
In the Saviour’s graces, 
To Jerusalem the fair, 
Warmed in His embraces.” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 239 


Or they sang: 


* Pluck up courage, soul, and fly. 
To the wounds of Jesus hie, 
Winged with flaming pinions.” 


Another favourite song, which evoked a lively ac- 
companiment from the trees and bushes about the mill 
—the call of the oriole, the warble of the robin, the 
piping of the finch and the titmouse — was Number 
542 of a Protestant hymnal printed in Breslau in 1790, 
by Gottlieb Korn, cum privilegio regio privativo. 

“See ye what a man is God, 
Hear His lamentation. 
See His heart dragged in the sod, 
See His deprivation. 


See how sorrowful is God, 
Hear his palpitation.” 


And so it went on repeating the line, “ See ye what 
a man is God.” Its fervent, soaring sentiment joined 
with its crass reality was calculated to mingle illusion 
with reality, the heavenly with the earthly, and reinforce 
faith in Quint — “See ye what a man is God! ”— 
who to the intoxicated enthusiasts had actually become 
the God-man for whom they yearned. 


CHAPTER XIV 


Tue Gurau Lady suggested to Emanuel that to 
complete his cure he should live with her gardener 
Heidebrand and his wife. Emanuel listened to her 
proposition with a serene air, and accepted gladly. 

Heidebrand besides being the castle gardener had 
supervision of all the parks and gardens of the Lady’s 
entire estate of Miltzsch. Like all her employés he 
was a Protestant and a God-fearing man. Over his 
rose-covered doorway he had put the inscription from 
the Bible, “ As for me and my house, we will serve the 
Lord.”’ 

The gardener’s house, an ancient structure, formerly 
the castle proper, was an idyllic place. Thick-stemmed 
ivy covered the walls with two kinds of leaves, and 
young shoots reached out their tiny baby hands into 
Quint’s pleasant attic room. The front part of the 
grounds, where several men were always at work, was 
devoted to rose culture, and the paths between several 
endless rows of glass hotbeds were lined with goose- 
berry and currant bushes. 'There were large strawberry 
beds, and raspberry bushes, too, grew luxuriantly 
against the back wall of the garden. When Quint 
settled in his new quarters, not all the peaches had been 
plucked. Some ripe ones were still hanging on the trel- 
lis. 

Heidebrand received his ward with his usual kindness. 
He showed him over his entire realm, and invited him 
to help himself to any of the fruit. To him Quint was 

240 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 24) 


a young man endeavouring to walk in the way of God, 
whom Satan was trying to lead astray, but who was cer- 
tainly not lost. 

Heidebrand immediately took Emanuel under his 
wing, regarding him as a ward entrusted to his care by 
God. Men like Heidebrand are convinced that they are 
in constant intercourse with God and act under his spe- 
cial orders. Though it was by the will of the Gurau 
Lady that Quint was placed with Heidebrand’s family, 
yet it was God’s doing. 

Quint instantly got the feeling that he was living 
in sheltered seclusion, and soon succumbed to the spell 
of the breath of earthly paradise emanating from the 
fruits and blossoms. And the warmth and the fragrance 
were not dispelled after little Ruth, the gardener’s fif- 
teen-year-old daughter, had visited his room. She had 
come to bring him a pitcher of fresh water and ask 
if there was anything he wanted. 

She and her mother began to take care of Quint as 
if he were a member of the family. 

A rich and harmonious life in those idyllic surround- 
ings now began for the Fool in Christ. He kept him- 
self secluded from the middle of the summer to the fall 
of the next year; not wholly secluded, but sufficiently 
so for the avalanche of blind faith he had precipitated 
to be halted for a time in its downward course. , 

Back of the garden was an endless stretch of level 
fields with meandering paths between. It was a place 
that could not have been better fitted for the meditations 
of an eccentric. Several gates in the front wall of the 
garden opened on the park, where a spacious English 
lawn set with great old trees surrounded a silvery lake 
reflecting the castle’s white facade. The castle was 
generally unoccupied, but at the Lady’s orders it was 


242 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


always kept in habitable condition. Her brother, who 
lost his life in an expedition across Africa, had been 
fond of living in it, and had collected a library, which 
his sister, out of respect to his memory, kept in good 
condition and added to from time to time. ‘The pastor 
of the neighbouring village Krug, one of the men the 
Lady patronised, occasionally acted as librarian. 

Five days after Quint’s arrival, the Lady visited 
her garden, and took the poor carpenter back to the 
castle with her. When, as on this occasion, she unex- 
pectedly appeared in one of her castles, her employés 
would say, “She’s got one of her executive days on 
her.” No religion then. Plain, practical matters, dry 
words, firm resolutions — resolutions formed in quiet 
moments with the help of God and the help of her keen 
mind and upright heart. 

On their way to the castle the Lady, who was un- 
accompanied by her attendant, had a lengthy conversa- 
tion with Emanuel, and the two remained together in 
the library a long time. Later, in her presence, the 
keeper of the castle solemnly handed over the key of 
the library to the unfortunate false prophet. In the 
evening she had Quint and old Mr. Heidebrand to din- 
ner, and her upper gardener then learned what were 
her intentions in regard to Quint. They were resolute, 
generous, capricious, irrevocable, as was to be expected. 

“ Emanuel,” she said, “look upon yourself for the 
present as my foster-child. In my opinion you are a 
man who ought to be given the opportunity to educate 
himself in freedom from material cares. I will not 
hamper you in the least. You can begin your education 
as you please. Until you are well, stay here. Then, if 
you wish, go to any school, or any teacher, and study 
whatever you want, and I offer you the necessary means. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 243 


My brother was an original, too. I know it myself, 
and I heard it often enough from him, that certain na- 
tures do not get any good from compulsory studies, 
from drill, and a set programme. You yourself will 

find the way to what is good. But learn, learn, learn! 
In your eyes, Emanuel ’’— here she had to turn her 
look away from him —* there is something that fills 
me with a certain spirit. Perhaps with what you have 
in you, you may exert an important, beneficent influ- 
ence upon humanity. But before that can be, it is nec- 
essary to learn the doings of the world and men. 

“To be a good influence is not necessarily to be a 
missionary. May God lead you in the right way. As 
I said, I do not in the remotest dream of exerting the 
least coercion upon you, whether in externals or in mat- 
ters of the soul. I know if I were to, you would slip 
away from us. Visit me if you care to speak to me, 
or find other company for yourself — clergymen, if 
you will, or not clergymen. The chief thing is to as- 
sociate with persons from whom one can learn.” 

Quint listened to the lady’s friendly, emphatic ad- 
vice with a quiet seriousness almost alarming in its clear- 
ness, and returned with Heidebrand to the gardener’s 
hospitable home in a state of meditative peace inter- 
woven with a subtle inward smile. 


* * bo * * * * * 


In the hospital Quint had acquired proper bodily 
habits, still further refined in the well-ordered household 
in which he lived. At table his manners were naturally 
correct, and he usually took the midday meal with the 
family. 

According to an old Christian custom, before begin- 
ning the meal, the family stood about the table and 


244 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


said aloud, “ Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” This 
in itself lent the meal a simple dignity. 

One day after the prayer had been said and all were 
seated, Quint remarked: 

“Do you know that when you summon Jesus that 
way he actually is a guest?” And he continued, 
‘When a meal is begun with that prayer, it becomes 
nothing less than a Lord’s Supper. If Jesus comes at 
your request, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is 
performed. But if, in spite of your summons, he -re- 
mains away, you did not pray in the right spirit, and are 
as far from Him as He is from you. For he that eateth 
and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damna- 
tion to himself.” 

When Quint spoke of such things, the gardener usu- 
ally tried to turn the conversation. He was domestic 
in his piety. It did not concern itself with matters far 
beyond his own garden walls. Besides, he had been 
well instructed that there was a morbid spot in Quint’s 
soul that had to be healed before anything truly useful 
for the kingdom of God was to be expected of him. 
Whenever the Fool in Christ spoke of the presence of 
Jesus, a shudder went through the gardener, who felt 
that so far from its being Jesus, it was the prince of 
hell that was present. 

Mrs. Heidebrand was not so clear in her feelings re- 
garding Emanuel’s strange character. Whenever his 
sickly spirit flared up, she wavered between terror and 
credulity. Often, until late at night, Ruth heard her 
parents in their bedroom peaceably discussing Quint. 
From what she could overhear through the thin frame 
walls and from many conversations she herself had with 
her mother, she realised how seriously Mrs. Heidebrand’s 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 245 


peace of mind was disturbed in regard to the Fool in 
Christ. 

Ruth was a lovely child, just growing into woman- 
hood when Quint came to take up his abode in her 
parents’ home. She was passing through that danger- 
ous springtime when bud and blossom venture forth, 
and everything tender and fragrant exposes itself inno- 
cently and trustfully to the alternations of icy cold, 
glowing heat, heavenly bliss, and raging tempests. 

A young man, the only child of a widower, the pastor 
Beleites of Krug who had charge of the castle library, 
had known Ruth from childhood and hoped to have her 
as his wife. He was a quiet, ambitious young man of 
twenty, who had just graduated as a physician. Ruth’s 
parents liked it when he came to visit them. They 
were well aware of his intentions, and knew he was 
counting upon having an assured livelihood at about 
the very time when Ruth would have reached the proper 
age for marriage. They already regarded him as their 
son. 

Young Beleites was spending the summer holiday 
after his examinations with his father. On his way 
to and from the castle library, which he was using, 
he would drop in at the gardener’s almost daily 
for a longer or shorter visit. He was the first to ob- 
serve a pronounced change in the girl’s manner. The 
poor boy had always known her to be an innocent, open- 
hearted creature. Now he often found her in a state of 
shy, gloomy reserve. At first, in the light of his newly 
acquired medical knowledge, he explained her condition 
by the critical period of her life. But being a sound, 
strong young man and having counted upon the first 
signs of awakening warmth in Ruth, he had to admit 


246 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to himself that on the contrary her feelings had per- 
ceptibly chilled. 

On his very first visits to the Heidebrands, Beleites 
noticed a curious workman among the rose-bushes, and 
a few days later, to his amazement, he met the same 
workman at table with the family. After the meal he 
walked to the lake with Ruth to feed the swans. ‘The 
slender, dark-eyed girl looked pale, and his attempt to 
extract information about the stranger met with no 
success. In the evening, when he returned home, he 
spoke to his father about Quint. 

Despite his fifty years Pastor Beleites was a robust, 
vigorous man, with a very sound understanding of 
everything unrelated to dogma. He laughed when his 
son told him of the Heidebrands’ boarder, and observed 
it was a misfortune for the beati possidentes and a mis- 
fortune for his honoured patroness that she could carry 
out her every whim without the least restraint. He told 
his son Quint’s strange story, or as much of it as he 
knew. In the consciousness of the theological educa- 
tion he himself had acquired, he forgot, when denoun- 
cing as a public nuisance the events for which Quint was 
responsible, the promise Jesus Himself had made to the 
poor and weak in spirit. 

Young Beleites, resorting to his course in psycho- 
pathology, proved that Quint bore signs of degen- 
eracy, apparent to him the instant he first saw him 
among the rose-bushes, and undoubtedly was hydro- 
cephalic. During his student years the stock of re- 
ligiousness Beleites had inherited from his parents had 
dwindled considerably, yet enough remained for him 
to emphasise the dangers with which the presence of a 
man suffering from religious insanity threatened the 
healthy spirit of a religious home. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST Q4°7 


“See what you can do,” said his father, “ against 
such a spirit of misdirected philanthropy.” 

Hans Beleites actually did try to see what he could 
do the very next opportunity that afforded itself. Pre- 
tending to be credulous he won Ruth’s confidence, and 
got her to tell him all about the stranger’s adventures. 
Ruth poured out her story with naive, childlike enthu- 
siasm. The two were standing beside a path behind 
the garden at the edge of a field of tall waving wheat 
ready for the mower. Ruth spoke ecstatically. She 
drew from her pocket a tiny New Testament, and great 
hectic spots flamed on her neck. 

Hans read her a lecture. 

** Listen,” he said, to her amazement taking the New 
Testament away from her, “this must stop. In the 
first place you will please take some iron. I will 
give you a prescription. What you need are red 
blood corpuscles in your body. In the second place 
I positively forbid your reading anything, even the 
Bible, for the next few months. You have always had 
a little too much ‘ temperament,’ and you are at an age 
now when temperament is doubly dangerous. I will 
speak to your mother, and ask her to let you off from 
going to churches and cemeteries and singing hymns, 
and so forth. That constant repetition of the Lord’s 
passion, his crucifixion and burial may have an ominous 
effect upon you. Let us talk about our future, Ruth. 
Be gay. You used to be —” 

But Ruth was looking at him with wide-open, un- 
comprehending eyes. 

Beleites went on, and frankly criticised her father 
for being so ready to receive Quint. 

‘Emanuel Quint belongs in the Diesdorf asylum. 
He’s a cretin. It is bad for a young, immature person 


248 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to associate with a sickly-minded creature like that. 
He’s a common type. A number of cases like his have 
just cropped up in France and Switzerland.” 

Beleites grew more and more indignant, and his ex- 
pressions, by no means lacking in candour, fairly ran 
over with his own superiority and contempt of Quint. 

He would have gone on endlessly in the same strain, 
if all of a sudden he had not discovered that he was ad- 
dressing the air. Ruth had slipped away. ‘There was 
nothing for Hans to do but leave the spot looking 
somewhat sheepish. . 


* * * * * * * * 


The next day Hans Beleites had a similar conversation 
with Mrs. Heidebrand. This time he succeeded, but 
the very success of his warnings prevented him from 
seeing how greatly the Fool’s influence upon her was 
increasing. 

“It may be that you are right, Hans,” she said, 
“but you should not have spoken to Ruth as you did. 
You intimidated her by saying such severe things about 
Quint. They actually made the child sick. I advise 
you, if the old friendship between you is to continue, 
don’t say another word to Ruth about Quint. Don’t 
fancy it is an easy matter to judge him. Just go 
speak to him. I am sure you will find him a simple, 
modest man without any extravagant notions. Father 
has taught him how to do a few things in the garden. 
He can graft rose-bushes, and clip hedges, and even 
use a spade. Though he never makes advances to any- 
one, you can see a change for the better in all the work- 
men and boys. They all want to be near him. You 
should come once on a Sunday. He sometimes sits back 
there in the field, where the boundary stone is, with 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 249 


forty or fifty children about him, and never tires of 
telling them nice little stories. Anyone can go and listen. 
Your presence would not disturb him. If you find any 
signs of insanity, or weak-mindedness, or monomania, I 
shall be greatly surprised.” 

The very next evening Hans carried out Mrs. Heide- 
brand’s proposition. 

The toads were croaking, and the crickets in the rye 
field were chirping. A warm evening breeze was stir- 
ring’ the lofty crowns of the trees in the park. The 
round moon was hanging in a pale sky. It was still 
bright as day, though the sun had already set. Quint 
had spent the greater part of the day in the fields help- 
ing the shepherd watch his flock. When he appeared at 
the head of a herd of several hundred sheep, the chil- 
dren, among whom were Mrs. Heidebrand, Ruth, and 
Hans, were already awaiting him. But he walked on 
at the head of the flock, and guided the tripping, pat- 
tering mass of animals through the gateway into the 
yard, and, with the help of the dog, into the fold. 

The shepherd followed with a second flock. In pass- 
ing he called out to Mrs. Heidebrand: 

** At last I have a boy with whom I am satisfied.” 

Good shepherds, it is known, are good veterinarians 
and good surgeons, and the ** Shepherd of Miltzsch,”— 
the only name by which the fine old man was known — 
had set many a broken limb for the servants or work- 
men in the neighbourhood. 

On Quint’s passing Ruth clung to her mother pas- 
sionately, showing marked excitement. 

Hans had to admit to himself that the strange shep- 
herd at the head of the herd made a remarkable impres- 
sion. A biblical halo seemed to radiate about the bu- 
colic picture, and Hans came near raising his hat 


250 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


respectfully. Of course he hunted for symptoms to 
confirm his hastily formed diagnosis, but he found 
that the Jesus-like impression Emanuel made was not 
lightly to be ascribed to external artificialities — alien- 
ists consider the passion for being different from one’s 
fellow-beings morbid. 

Emanuel’s mustache was light and downy, his beard 
pointed. His nose was long and sharp, his brows 
arched and bushy. His large eyes had a kindly ex- 
pression, with no look of wonder in them. Perhaps 
there was a certain design in his wearing his hair too 
long, though his beard was short and well kept. And 
there seemed to be no premeditation that his shirt was 
open, his trousers short, and his feet bare, and that he 
held a long crook in his right hand. The other shep- 
herd also had a crook, and, like Quint, carried his jacket 
slung over his left shoulder. It was quite consciously 
that Quint sometimes fell back into his habit of going 
barefoot. He said he wanted to remain in touch with 
the forces of mother earth. 

The onlookers could see how the new shepherd care- 
fully washed his hands and face at the running water 
in the yard; after which he walked up smiling and shook 
hands with Mrs. Heidebrand, Ruth, and Hans. The 
children crowded about him. The way he stroked one 
child’s flaxen hair, laid his hand on another child’s neck, 
shook hands with one of the older children, and lifted a 
baby from its sister’s arm to seat it on the grass — all 
that was like an experienced shepherd bringing order 
and peace into his flock. 

* Sit down,” he said. ‘** How much time have we be- 
fore supper, Mrs. Heidebrand?” Mrs. Heidebrand 
told him, and seating himself on a boundary stone, he 
began: 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 251 


* Dear little fellow-men, sons of man, and daughters 
of man, he who speaks to you and is with you is the Son 
of man. Suffer the little children to come unto me, He 
says, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom 
of God. You, children, you have the kingdom of God, 
and you shall spread it in the world. Your eyes, dear 
children, are like a heavenly spring to me. But you, 
too, have evil in you, for somewhere, at some time, tares 
were sown among the wheat in our Lord’s pure crea- 
tion.” 

The children listened intently while Quint told them 
Christ’s parable of the enemy that came and sowed 
tares in a man’s wheat field. 

‘I give you a sermon,” he continued, “‘ yet I give you 
words while you give me the spring of your silence, the 
spring of your waiting, the spring of your childhood. 
When I take from the spring you give me, and pour 
into the vessel of my soul, I pour limpid water into tur- 
bid water.” He took up one of the little boys, and 
seated him on his knees. “It is said that he who loves 
his child will chastise him. But I say unto you, he who 
chastises a child is himself chastised. 'The Son of man 
will not raise his hand against you, except to caress or 
cure you. This is the healing power of the Son of 
man, that he destroys the seeds of evil in you, so that 
they do not grow along with the kingdom of heaven, 
which is established in you. Verily I say unto you, 
Except ye become as this little child ”—he laid his 
hand on the head of the boy sitting in his lap, and 
looked at Mrs. Heidebrand, Ruth and Hans —“ ye 
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” 

The rest of his sermon seemed to be addressed to the 
group of adults, who were now joined by Mr. Heide- 
brand and the castle-keeper. 


252 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


* Children, love one another.”’ 

Emanuel spoke in a simple natural tone, very differ- 
ent from the canting bathos of the pulpit. He showed 
that there are various phases of development in the 
child’s soul in man. ‘The first phase ends with the real 
childhood of the body, though to be a child does not 
necessarily mean to have a child’s soul. A man with 
a child’s soul loses it in the natural course of his growth 
when he reaches the age at which he learns the world’s 
sorrows. Sometimes his experiences in that period age 
him and rob him forever of the kingdom of heaven. 
Everywhere people hardened by life are to be seen go- 
ing about their daily tasks with grim, embittered faces. 
In a third phase, Quint said, the childhood of those 
whom God loves is re-acquired, and blossoms more beau- 
tifully and luxuriantly than in the former phase. This 
is the childhood of the disciple John, who unconsciously 
bore the secret of the kingdom of God in his soul, and 
the Saviour loved John very dearly. 

Hans Beleites did not know what to make of his im- 
pressions. He could not discover any evidences of 
what a physician would call morbid symptoms, though 
the sermonising of the children was in itself a curious 
performance, and it was unusual that a man of the lower 
classes, a pale, somewhat sickly-looking man, who had 
attended only the village school, should have such lan- 
guage at his command. Yet he spoke without extrav- 
agance of sentiment, and his ideas stimulated thought. 
Had it not been for Ruth’s presence, Hans would prob- 
ably have gone up to the singular man and spoken to 
him. As it was, Hans was embittered and alarmed 
by Ruth’s noticeable dependence upon Emanuel, and 
this turned the Fool in Christ into the object of his 


jealousy, a rival in love. 
* % % * 7% % * * 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 253 


One day Hans and Emanuel met in the library. 
Emanuel greeted him with simple warmth. The Fool 
made frequent use of the privilege extended him, and 
generally went to the library on hot afternoons, when 
he would spend several hours at a time there sitting 
and reading, or walking up and down meditatively with 
an open book in his hand. 

The Shepherd of Miltzsch had just effected a cure 
of the miraculous sort discredited and despised by 
the great guild of regular practitioners. A landed 
peasant-farmer in the neighbourhood, Fritzsch, had been 
stung by an insect, his whole left arm was swollen and 
blue, and a famous physician in Breslau, who examined 
him, said amputation was unavoidable. The obsti- 
nate peasant would not consent to the loss of an arm, 
and went to the Shepherd of Miltzsch, who actually suc- 
ceeded in saving his life and limb. The only after- 
effect was a slight stiffness in his arm at times. 

Hans did not believe the story, and for that very rea- 
son began to discuss it with Quint, intending more or 
less consciously to provoke opposition. His heated re- 
marks about the shepherd fairly swelled with youthful 
conceit. He went for the shepherd’s quackery tooth 
and nail, yet failed to make an opponent of Quint, who 
said both the physician and the shepherd had the best 
intentions of doing good, and actually did do good, 
though the greatest good was with God. 

‘In my opinion,” Quint continued, “ the physician’s 
profession is the noblest calling. I envy you the way 
that lies before you, the way of mercy.” 

That was an aspect in which Hans had never viewed 
his profession. He merely regarded it, like the ordinary 
humdrum Philistine, as a means for a substantial live- 


lihood. 


254 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Quint showed how the true physician of the body is 
also a physician of the soul, and he fell back upon the 
Bible, so intermingling things spiritual with things cor- 
poreal that to Hans his language seemed the very type 
of extravagance and mental derangement. For in- 
stance, Quint said he who cannot raise the dead is no 
physician. That, Hans thought, surely overstepped 
the limits of sanity. 

Hans never succeeded in convincing Ruth’s parents 
of the need to rid their home of the enthusiast. Heide- 
brand himself always said, no matter how much he tried, 
he could not see anything bad about Quint. As a mat- 
ter of fact, nobody could have led a simpler, less con- 
spicuous existence than Quint in those days. His per- 
sonal habits grew still nicer. He became accustomed 
to a clean bed, a clean room, and, through the Lady’s 
kindness, to clean linen and good clothes. Even at his 
parents’ home he had washed himself at the trough in 
the yard with almost priestly feelings of purification. 
Now he was fairly obsessed by a frenzy for cleanliness. 
One of his practises, however, got him the reputation 
with the country people of being not quite right. 

The August sun on rising between three and four 
o’clock in the morning looked upon villages wrapped in 
slumber and the naked body of Emanuel Quint beside 
the arm of the lake from which he had just emerged. 
Profound silence and seclusion hovered over the spot, 
save that the religious services had begun which always 
accompany the rising of the sun. A few moments be- 
fore the many-throated chorus of joyous song-birds 
had burst forth in the branches of the gigantic park 
trees. 

That bath was a lofty joy to Emanuel, it was para- 
disiacal bliss. It was even more. It was a sacred rite. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 255 


The enchanting devotion of that hour sanctified his 
whole day. 


* * % * * # a * 


An event occurred which broke the peace of the gar- 
dener’s household. He and his wife held long, serious 
deliberations whether for Ruth’s sake they could con- 
tinue to harbour Quint. 

One Sunday the family had scarcely got out of the 
coach in which they had driven home from Pastor Be- 
leites’s church, when Ruth fell into a trance-like sleep. 
She lay in a darkened room stretched on an old flowered 
sofa, her parents beside her listening in alarm to the 
strange things she began to utter. They closed the 
door of the room. 

Ruth had never been a talkative child. Now, speak- 
ing by fits and starts, she seemed to be obeying an inner 
influence that made her deliver long speeches, which 
could not have originated in her own mind. Her parents 
had seen persons in such a state before. <A spiritualist 
and her companion had visited those parts going from 
one estate to another, and the Heidebrands had attended 
a séance at Mr. Scheibler’s house. They had often 
spoken in Ruth’s presence of the remarkable things 
they had witnessed there. 

So Hans Beleites had been right in his concern for 
Ruth’s mental state. Even without Quint the spiritual 
atmosphere of the house was not wholesome. Among 
the gardener’s associates the very same topics were dis- 
cussed that had forced Anton and Martin Scharf into 
dangerous ways. The Bible recognised the gift of 
prophecy. It promised that those upon whom the Holy 
Ghost descended should speak with tongues and pro- 
claim the mystery of the kingdom of God, and it did not 


256 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


deny the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. 
Moreover, the Revelation of St. John in this circle, too, 
kept alive a burning fever, which infected some souls 
here and there. 

Therefore, when Ruth fell into her ecstatic sleep, the 
one question that troubled her parents’ naive minds was 
whether she was an instrument of good or evil spirits, 
whether she was in relations with God or Satan. Fi- 
nally, in listening to her, they came to take a more 
common sense view of her condition, were properly 
alarmed, and thought of calling in a physician. 

To judge by her actions Ruth seemed to be in com- 
munion with no less an one than the Saviour. Her man- 
ner alone would have converted her in people’s eyes 
into something like a Spanish nun. Undoubtedly, had 
she had more such attacks, she would gradually have 
come to be regarded as a saint. She saw the Saviour. 
She spoke with him. He stood in a halo of pure light. 
He gave her explicit orders, which she showed a happy, 
childlike will to obey. 

On awaking it took her a long time to adapt herself 
to her narrow surroundings. Her parents told her she 
was sick, and her mother wanted her to go to bed, and 
spoke of elderberry and fennel tea. That outraged 
her. She fought against the impossibility of making 
her mother understand. Why, it had been an experi- 
ence, a glory beyond human expression! 

“*T am not sick!” she kept crying. ‘ How can you 
think I am sick when you sat right beside me? How 
can you? How is it you do not know what heavenly 
grace has been bestowed upon me!” 

Her father tried to calm her, while her mother burst 
into tears of alarm. 

** Mother,” exclaimed Ruth, “ how can you cry when 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 257 


the bridegroom is so near, here, in this very house, and 
the wedding is prepared? ” 

The Heidebrands considered whom to call in for 
help. They were not willing to make the incident known 
to any or everybody. An instinct led them not to con- 
tradict their daughter — apparently the proper course 
to pursue, since it seemed to calm the girl inwardly and 
outwardly. They could come to no conclusion. In the 
first place, they were dependent upon the Gurau Lady, 
and it was she who had placed Quint in their care. 
Secondly, they were simple people, who did not wish to 
create a sensation. Besides, they did not know of a 
good physician for such a case. There was an old 
country doctor in the neighbourhood, but he did not 
inspire confidence with his few well-known stock rem- 
edies, which he applied to every trouble, even to the ills 
the seed of which the enemy had sowed. His views of 
the life of the spirit, its lights and its shadows, were 
entirely opposed to those of the gardener’s credulous 
circle. The Heidebrands put greater reliance in the 
curative efficacy of prayer. In the evening, after 
Ruth had gone to sleep and they heard her quiet 
breathing in bed, they went to God for an explanation 
and help. And God strangely put the firm resolution 
into their hearts to take Emanuel Quint into their con- 
fidence. 

The next few days they spent in observing Ruth. 
They could clearly detect that Quint held their daugh- 
ter bound to him by invisible chains. Everywhere the 
Fool went Ruth followed at about a stone’s throw be- 
hind him. If he stepped from the house, she soon had 
to be outside after him, no matter what she was doing, 
whether folding the wash or helping her mother in the 
kitchen. 


258 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


When Quint spoke to her, her waxen face turned deep 
red, and beamed with delight. From a distance she 
would read his wishes — not always correctly — in his 
light-lashed blue eyes, and bring him a spade, or a rake, 
or some other garden utensil. Sometimes Emanuel 
would mow the English lawn in the park with the mow- 
ing-machine, and Ruth, serious and engrossed in 
thought, would rake up the grass in his tracks. But 
she never touched him. Nor was Emanuel ever seen, 
in the garden or grounds, to lay his hand on her hand, 
or shoulder, or hair. ! 


* * bad * * * * * 


When Mrs. Heidebrand, with marked concern, told 
Quint of her daughter’s sickly trance and dreams, he 
manifested simple, earnest sympathy, without showing 
the slightest signs of a guilty conscience, not even when 
the gardener spoke to him. It was impossible to detect 
any connexion between the condition of Ruth’s soul 
and his mysterious madness. And the Heidebrands did 
not dare to insinuate that there was a connexion. 

After the conversation Quint went about his quiet 
pursuits as before—the inward pursuits, which were 
hidden from those around him, and the outward pur- 
suits, which were visible to all and which he chose at 
will. 

Since Ruth did not have a relapse, but passed her days 
in quiet cheerfulness, her prophetic trance soon fell into 
oblivion. 


CHAPTER XV 


_ One Sunday Sister Hedwig, who had nursed Quint in 
the hospital, paid him a visit at the gardener’s. He 
went with her to the shepherd’s hut next to the sheep- 
fold, where there were some twenty peasants, who had 
come to consult the shepherd about various ailments. 
The sheep-dogs chained in the yard ceased their mad 
barking when the Fool and the sister passed by. On 
entering the hut they found the shepherd splinting the 
broken leg of a harvester, whom two men had brought 
on a stretcher. Hedwig and Emanuel greeted the shep- 
herd, who immediately enlisted their services. 

Sister Hedwig: was of direct help to him with her tech- 
nical skill, while Quint spoke with some women to learn 
the nature of their complaints. The shepherd cast 
stolen glances at Quint, and with his looks hinted to Sis- 
ter Hedwig to watch Quint’s behaviour. To the shep- 
‘herd his conduct seemed to be a thing to wonder at. As 
he worked busily over his patient, he called to Hedwig 
above the noisy bleating from the fold: 

* They’re all leaving me and going to him!” 

Hedwig noticed that even the sick man under the 
shepherd’s hands kept looking over at Emanuel. She 
well knew what a fund of patience Quint had at his 
command. During his sickness he had accepted his 
sufferings placidly, cheerfully, as if a kindly spirit had 
conceived them for his good. She had been touched, 
and was drawn to him by the silent warmth of his soul, 
which she felt to be the purest gratitude. And young 

259 


260 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


woman that she was, filled with a woman’s seeking and 
yearning, she detected a change in herself. She was 
touched with the balsamic effect of his heart. He 
seemed to have made her happier. She knew what evil 
rumours were afloat about him, but never having heard 
him say extravagant things such as were uttered daily 
by persons in her own circle and in the conventicles she 
attended, and responding to an indefinable power in his 
personality, she surrounded the report about him with a 
supernatural halo. | 

She was delighted when Emanuel offered to accom- 
pany her to her parents’ home, about an hour and a 
half’s walk from the shepherd’s hut. He walked be- 
side her in silence, or, perhaps, it would be more correct 
to say, she walked beside him, across the stubble fields 
beneath circling flocks of crows and pigeons. 

Her father had been a teacher of a village school for 
thirty years. The school building was a romantic 
structure hidden among old lindens. When the two 
entered the yard, the girl felt the beating of her heart 
in her throat. But her father and mother received 
Emanuel with hearty pleasure. 

Krause was a man of fifty-three, youthfully fresh in 
appearance and freer and more genial of manner than 
is usual in men of his class. His little wife resembled 
a ball of fat. In the middle of the living-room stood 
an old-fashioned grand piano, and against the wall a 
parlour-organ. When his daughter and her companion 
entered, Krause was sitting in the corner of a flowered 
sofa. He instantly arose, raised his embroidered cap, 
shook hands with Emanuel, and gave him a cordial wel- 
come. 

Within a few minutes Emanuel was feeling at home. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 261 


Hedwig removed her deaconess’ cap, and went into the 
kitchen to help her mother prepare supper. Marie, her 
younger sister, a full-figured, stately girl, dressed in a 
light gown, came in holding her straw hat and a book. 
She had been sitting in her favourite spot behind the 
old churchyard wall, enjoying the chirp of the crickets 
in the last warm moments of the declining day. Krause 
did not wait until after supper to sit down at the piano 
and play. Without any airs and graces Marie con- 
sented to stand next to him and sing simple folk songs 
in her pretty tender alto to the accompaniment of the 
spinet-like tones of the old instrument. 

Mrs. Scheibler and her nephew Kurt Simon dropped 
in while the family were at supper. Kurt, who had not 
seen Emanuel since that one time he had met him with 
Brother Nathaniel, exchanged greetings without recog- 
nising him. It took him some time to realise that the 
man in neat, clean clothes was the same that he had seen 
kneeling half naked near a haystack. Mrs. Scheibler 
started when she heard Quint’s name. She was still full 
of exaggerated reports of his former ways, though in- 
fluenced to be somewhat milder in her judgment by the 
Heidebrands. She observed Quint with curiosity and 
horror. Recently at a mission festival she had met 
Pastor Schuch, who had stuck to his assertion that 
Quint had called himself Jesus Christ, the anointed of 
the Lord. The only alternative open to her was that 
Quint was either unsound in mind, or possessed of the 
devil. As soon as she found herself alone with Mr. 
Krause she expressed her grave doubts wholly in Pastor 
Schuch’s spirit. She asked him how Quint happened 
to be with his family, and dwelt upon the dangers of 
receiving him. But the teacher, in his kindly, emotional 


262 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


way paid no attention to her scruples. He spoke of 
other things, and incidentally represented Quint as a 
simple, modest man. 

Mrs. Scheibler had come loaded with all sorts of pro- 
visions from the store-room on her farm, a way she had 
of helping the teacher’s family. Hers was a resolute, 
practical nature, with a good deal of the healthy animal 
in it, despite the loud prating she did about ideals. 
The Krauses admired her, and looked upon her grate- 
fully as their benefactress. She took motherly care 
of Hedwig and Marie and many young girls in the 
neighbourhood, besides. Gifted with a beautiful voice 
— in speaking concealed by the hard, rough tones of her 
idiom — she saw to it that the daughters of her farm 
labourers learned music and singing. She taught them 
useful crafts, how to conduct themselves in society, how 
to trim a hat, how to dress, and also, if need be, how 
to wash themselves with soap and water. 

As a young girl Mrs. Scheibler had been famous at 
balls for her graceful dancing, and she would have 
taught her peasant girls how to dance had her hfe not 
been blasted by the death of her one child, a boy. 
Formerly her religion had been untinged by gloom. 
She had had a trustful joy in mingling with the world. 
But now there was a chasm between her and the world. 
She lived in enmity with it. It had robbed her of her 
every hope, cheating her of her first passionate love, 
then taking away the thing that was dearest to her. 
She now placed her hopes in Christ. Her heart hung 
upon the heavenly child Jesus and the heavenly bride- 
groom to whom she was mystically wedded and with 
whom, in the life beyond, she walked in dreamy oneness. 
The sight of Quint filled her with indignation and. dis- 
gust. That he with his ordinary, prosaic presence as- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 263 


serted he was the Saviour seemed an impudent mockery 
of the divine glory of her tortured dreams. 

‘How in the world,” she asked Hedwig, “ did you 
come to bring that horrible man along with you?” 

Mrs. Scheibler’s son was buried in the old church- 
yard in Dronsdorf, which was no longer used for burial 
except in case of death in the family of the church 
patron. It was kept locked and Krause was entrusted 
with the key. He also kept the key to a weather-beaten 
chapel standing guard over the graveyard. Mrs. 
Scheibler almost always visited the grave when she 
came to see the Krauses. The vicinity of the place 
where her child lay buried filled her with painful joy, 
the one blooming oasis in the dry desert of her exist- 
ence. Had she been forced to leave the neighbourhood 
of that ivy-covered mound, or prevented from taking 
her daily pilgrimages there, she would have been robbed 
of her son a second time. Everything that still blos- 
somed in her soul would have turned to ashes. 


* * * * *% * * * 


After supper the whole company except the mother, 
who was too stout to be brisk, accompanied Mrs. Schei- 
bler to her son’s grave. Mrs. Scheibler striding on 
ahead with a masculine gait seemed to disregard Quint 
intentionally. She was walking with Krause, and as 
the two mounted the slope to the church, the teacher’s 
loud voice resounded in the balmy silence of the falling 
night, echoing from the moonlit gables of the little 
cottage and the white wall of the chapel. Quint and the 
two girls, one on each side of him, fell behind. As 
their father’s voice grew fainter in the distance the 
chirping of the crickets sounded louder and louder, like 
a chorus of bacchantes. 


264 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The girls told Quint of Mrs. Scheibler’s sad story. 
Hedwig was the more talkative, and described the mag- 
nificent pomp with which Lorenz Scheibler had been laid 
in his grave. Sympathy for the bereaved woman had 
been universal. Five or six pastors stood in front of 
the coffin at the altar, and spoke words of love, faith, 
exhortation, and consolation. The final blessing was 
pronounced by an old pastor of ninety, who still held 
office. His noble, saint-like face and silvery white hair 
flowing to his shoulders made an impression of sublimity 
upon the two sisters, at that time still mere children. 

Marie exceeded her sister in piety, even though Hed- 
wig wore the deaconess’ garb and outdid her younger 
sister in good works. Hedwig seemed always to be seek- 
ing something, while Marie’s self-sufficient being seemed 
to be listening to an inner harmony. 

Mrs. Scheibler’s repellent manner toward Quint evi- 
dently disturbed the girls. They assumed that Quint 
had noticed her coldness, and in their profound respect 
for her, they tried to excuse her on the score of her an- 
guish over her dead son, and told of all the good she 
did. 

Emanuel, however, in his attitude to Mrs. Schei- 
bler, was apparently affected by nothing but her own 
trouble, and listened with quiet attention to the girls’ 
account. When they reached the open churchyard gate, 
Emanuel, in the magic spell of nature’s nocturnal en- 
chantment, involuntarily raised his hand to ask the girls 
to be silent. 

Hedwig Krause was twenty-four years old, Marie 
not yet twenty. Marie already possessed a woman’s 
full charms. She was a graceful blonde, with a small 
childlike face breathing innocence and virginity. Hed- 
wig’s features already bore the impress of the severe 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 265 


self-renunciation demanded by her profession. Bitter 
experiences of every sort were easily to be deciphered 
in her face. Yet she, too, was a lovely blossom of 
youthfulness, and the two daughters of the teacher of 
Dronsdorf were each in her way, counted among the 
prettiest girls in the district. 

Mr. Scheibler and Mr. Krause returned from their 
visit to the grave. Their voices sounded closer. The 
others heard the large key turn in the rusty lock of the 
chapel gate, and the gate itself creak as it swung on 
its hinges. A few moments later Quint and the girls 
and Kurt Simon, who had come another way, were 
standing in the deep, whispering shadows of the ancient 
lindens looking into the obscure depths of the church 
nave. A light was flickering inside, and the organ was 
beginning to rumble. It rose and swelled harmoni- 
ously, then ceased, and Krause softly called to Kurt 
Simon to come up and blow the organ for him. Now, 
above the suppressed rumblings, rose a clear, soul-stir- 
_ring note, which seemed to Quint and the sisters to come 
from heaven. They listened as if held in a spell. 

Mrs. Scheibler sometimes sang in church, sometimes 
alone with the teacher and a peasant boy to blow the 
organ, and sometimes for her friends. 


*©O Jesus, my sweet light, 
Now is the night departed 
Now is Thy saving grace 
To me again imparted.” 


Emanuel had seated himself on a bench between the 
sisters. Hearing the song the picture of poor Martha 
Schubert shaken by convulsions rose to his mind. She 
had sung the same song, but in an artless, childlike 
voice. Emanuel felt that the voice he was now listening 


266 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to was filled with profound grace as from God, was 
sanctified by sorrow and fervour. He could not recall 
ever having heard the Saviour’s honoured name, the name 
Jesus, borne to him upon such pure, tender waves of 
love. 

Since the Fool in Christ lived at the gardener’s, a 
quiet cheerfulness had come upon him. The outward 
expression of it, usually free from any assertiveness, be- 
tokened nothing but hearty, human simplicity. The 
insight he had gained, the security of his hedged-in 
existence had filled him with a bright inner harmony. 
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, 
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns.” ‘The 
spirit of those words of Christ seemed actually to be 
alive in him. 

But now dark shadows crept up from the pro- 
fundities of his spirit. The triumphant notes of the 
song were marred by the recollection of an unpleasant 
child’s voice, and the hell of the Schubert hut stood 
before his soul a black, consuming flame. A pang went 
through him, only in part the pang of the moaning 
mother. Emanuel knew it was his old companion of the 
days of his awakening, his old companion announcing 
its return, very different in its nature from the mother’s 
anguish over her dead child. Emanuel thought of his 
mother, but the moist gleam of his eyes in the moon- 
light shining through the church window, was not for 
her sake. He thought of the mother of Christ and had 
to admit to himself that this woman, so hard in her 
manner toward him, was not unlike Mary at the cross. 


* * * * * * * * 


Kurt Simon accompanied Quint to the inn where 
Krause had engaged a room for him. ‘The young man 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 267 


again felt the spell of the “Son of man,” as the Fool 
had called himself. He found Emanuel changed. 
They seated themselves at a table in the empty dining- 
room, and Kurt feeling at ease spoke about intimate 
subjects without constraint. The poor boy had little 
opportunity to unbosom himself in the home of the 
Scheiblers, whom he was soon to leave for the capital 
of the province, where he was to take up new pursuits. 
He was at that dangerous age when the fermenting sap 
in a man rises and announces the torturing intoxication 
of love, when the allurements of love suck at his heart 
while the fulfilment of his love is unattainable, when a 
burning love-fever, vague and unspecific, sometimes 
drives the lover to the edge of an abyss, and even drags 
him down over the precipice with curses against the 
world upon his lips. For the wild embraces with which 
a boy thinks he will snatch life very often close upon a 
very different object, and love finds its sedative in a 
very different bed from what his passion conjured up 
before his eyes. 

In the meanwhile Mrs. Scheibler went home with a 
servant of the Krauses instead of Kurt. On leaving 
the church she had gone back to the teacher’s home, 
and had again spoken excitedly against Quint. 

‘“‘ God’s blessing seems to depart with his presence,” 
she said. ‘* The Heidebrands were too good, too trust- 
ing in taking him into their home. He has created a 
perfect upset there. Hans Beleites is miserably un- 
happy, and poor little Ruth is filled with a strange, re- 
fractory spirit, which surely did not emanate from 
heaven. Fancy, he never goes to church.” 

To Mrs. Scheibler’s amazement, the girls took the 
Fool’s part, even Marie, although her forte was listen- 
ing rather than talking. Blushing vividly she dared 


268 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to pledge her soul that Emanuel’s ways were pure and 
pleasing to God. 

Thenceforth Emanuel visited the Krauses several 
times a week. ‘Though Mrs. Scheibler, whenever she 
came, expressed the same fears and kept her distance 
from the Fool, he became more and more welcome in the 
teacher’s family. He was seen walking with Marie for 
hours at a time along the balks of the stubble fields, 
and the girl’s parents grew accustomed to the idea that 
one day they would be joined at the altar. Mr. Krause, 
not finding it in his power to mention certain consider- 
ations of his to Quint, mentally constructed his daugh- 
ter’s future without consulting him. During the past 
weeks Quint had shown great eagerness to study. 
Why should he not become a missionary, and why 
should not Herrnhut send him and his wife Marie to a 
foreign country to convert the heathens? 

A friendship had grown up between Emanuel and 
Kurt Simon. Kurt visited Quint twice at Miltzsch, and 
Quint called for Kurt to go walking. Here again 
Quint’s strange power of attracting became manifest, 
a power greatly enhanced, perhaps, by the very fact 
that he showed no intentions of attracting. Kurt was 
still worried by his cogitations in favour of and against 
a degenerate Protestantism practised in the circle of 
the Scheiblers. Almost daily the pistol was held to his 
breast to choose for all time between eternal damna- 
tion or eternal bliss, eternal death or eternal life. Be- 
sides, his nerves were in an excited state from lack of 
rest, the exigencies of his work curtailing his time for 
sleep at both ends. His nights were filled with fright- 
fully realistic dreams coloured by the ideas discussed 
during the day — gloomy landscapes as before the 
creation of the world, judgment day, the blare of 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 269 


trumpets, hell tortures, the destruction of the world. 
He rose in the morning with the weight of leaden weari- 
ness upon him. The flash of emancipating thought 
had not yet darted through those sultry premonitions 
of a storm. There was nothing in the atmosphere but 
a dull brewing and smouldering. The terrible heritage 
of the fear of death, strengthened by the dread of 
punishment in hell, had not yet been sweated out of 
him. There was a barricade in his life between him 
and salvation from such ideas. When hot, lascivious 
dreams announced the awakening of love and a paradise 
of rapturous bliss forced its way into the dreadful 
shadows of his nights, he called it the temptation of 
the devil, and was tortured by still greater pangs of 
conscience. After such nights he crept about like a man 
with the mark of secret crime branded upon him. 
Emanuel Quint, about ten years older than Kurt 
became an authority to him. The quiet, tranquil in- 
fluence his personality exerted in those days, the pure 
love of man his being emanated, gave Kurt a feeling 
of regeneration and sheltered seclusion. Quint never 
threatened. The little he said in rejoinder to his new 
friend’s endless confessions had the saving force of 
“Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” 
Kurt felt infinitely grateful to Emanuel, not only be- 
cause he had restored his self-respect to him, the con- 
sciousness of his own value, but also because Emanuel 
was the first man that had met him as an equal. More- 
over, through Emanuel, Kurt learned to know a joy 
he had never experienced, the noble joy of friendship. 
Now he was filled with the delight of friendship and 
pride in it, and a passionate love bound him to his idol. 
Quint was sometimes invited to the houses of the 
gentry in the neighbourhood, who were interested in 


270 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


his curious career and especially in the fact that he was 
the Gurau Lady’s guest. They frequently discussed 
him at table without ever coming to an agreement 
about him — how account for it that on the one hand 
there was the universal contempt of the people at large, 
and on the other hand there was the good opinion of 
the Gurau Lady, the Heidebrands, and, above all, 
Krause, whom everybody loved and respected? The 
people never called Emanuel anything else than the Fool 
of Miltzsch, as he himself was well aware. So, in their 
arguments, the large party among the families of rank 
that opposed Emanuel could appeal to the vow populi, 
which is the will of God. 

In Silesia and other Prussian provinces east of the 
Elbe one meets here and there with country gentlemen 
who are strictly religious yet of an irritable hardness 
by no means suggestive of Christ’s mildness. When 
such men, of whom there were a few in the neighbour- 
hood of Miltzsch, happened to hear that Quint had 
been invited to this or that company, to the druggist 
of Krug or Salo Glaser, owner of a manorial estate, 
they could scarcely contain their indignation. Ex- 
tremest of all was a Baron Kellwinkel, whose property 
bordered on Miltzsch. ‘The mere mention of Quint’s 
name was enough to set him in a rage. 

He was a man of over sixty. A mighty white 
mustache spread its wings under his spectacled nose, 
and in anger his bushy white brows contracted in truly 
martial style. His face aristocratically bespoke hard- 
ness, penetration, and ruthless intolerance. A speech 
of his in the Reichstag defending corporal punishment 
had temporarily brought him before the nation’s 
notice. Occasionally he resorted to corporal punish- 
ment on his own estate, and his keen eye was always 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST Q71 


alert for suspicious signs of the times tending to limit 
the power of his own strong ruling hand. He did not 
believe in paternalism, and refused to recognise poverty. 
Poverty, he declared, was the victim’s own fault, it was 
_ well-merited punishment. He would have liked to ex- 
punge from all writings and even from the pulpit those 
eternal admonitions to be compassionate and charitable. 
In his opinion authors that wrote books or magazine 
articles describing evil conditions and giving examples 
of woful misery were fit candidates for the peniten- 
tiary. ‘The fellow belongs behind lock and key ” was 
a favourite expression of his. If things had been ar- 
ranged according to Baron Kellwinkel’s ideal, Ger- 
many’s entire emotional and spiritual civilisation would 
have been placed behind lock and key. 

Without ever having seen him, the Baron nourished 
violent hatred of Emanuel Quint. Not only that his 
hatred was fanned by the butcher and cattle-dealer of 
Giersdorf, who had taken part in the attack on the 
fools in Jesus — the Baron himself attended to the sell- 
ing of his fattened cattle; not only that a sectarian 
spirit hostile to the church set him afire; not only that 
his pride in caste was outraged because he scented some- 
thing like slave rebellion in Quint’s attitude; over and. 
above all this was something come down to him from 
his freebooting ancestors —he felt himself insulted in 
his power as an absolute lord by Quint’s mere existence. 

Every moment some news about Quint came to his 
ears to vex him. The thing that exercised him most 
was Quint’s absurd obstinacy in not accepting or spend- 
ing money. It would have been wiser in Quint not to 
keep reviving his reputation as a fool by refusing 
money, but in this respect it turned out, he was not 
to be bargained with. Baron Kellwinkel was also an- 


272 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


noyed by the increasing number that visited the Shep- 
herd of Miltzsch on Quint’s account. He wrote several 
furious letters to the Gurau Lady, in which he 
spoke of the ragamuffins haunting the vicinity of 
Miltzsch and disturbing the borders of his own grounds. 
The people refused to work. When questioned by him 
or his inspectors, they had the proper papers to show, 
they were not begging, they paid their modest board 
at the inn, yet it was impossible to: extract the least 
reason from them for their suspicious tramping about 
the country. | 

Emanuel had no surmise of the entire extent of the 
rumours and intrigues of which he was the object. 
Nevertheless, several things happened to shake him 
out of the feeling that he was stowed away in a secure 
hiding-place remote from the world. He received the 
first intimation that popular ill-will was seething under 
the surface at the end of February on a Sunday walk 
to Dronsdorf. It was noontime and church was let- 
ting out. From the very midst of the church-goers 
abusive epithets were hurled at him. All showed their 
contempt, anger or ridicule. 

The first to make sport of him was a little old woman. 
Next a peasant in a long funereal coat and chimney- 
pot cried, “Take care! Look out!” Then a num- 
ber of voices together chorused, “ The Fool of Miltzsch! 
The Messiah of Giersdorf!” 

It was a mild spring day. The chatter of the spar- 
rows in the rows of wet, naked poplars lining the road 
mingled with the chiming of the village church bells. 
That horrid bawling of men was a shrieking discord in 
the harmony. Quint’s soul filled with painful bitter- 
ness. His heart ached when he left the crowd behind 
him and in his thoughts again tasted the insults the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 273 


pious congregation had heaped upon him. Had not a 
man once before, the father of the Scharf, to whom he 
wished to bring peace and actually did bring peace, 
turned from him as if he were Satan himself. And did 
he deserve it that the boys should shout the name of the 
Arch-enemy in his face? 

“ Look out! There’s Old Harry!” 

And some labourers’ wives who wanted to make them- 
selves conspicuous pointed at him, and shrieked: 

‘‘ He has a cloven hoof!” 

Even that was not enough. Quint thought he had 
escaped the crowd and was alone with his dismay and 
heartache, when all of a sudden something struck him 
from behind. For an instant his senses left him, and 
he reeled. A shout of triumph and other signs told him 
that the congregation by way of farewell had sent after 
him, with full force, a clod of earth and stones. 

The cause of this outburst was connected with many 
invisible hostile agencies. A number of people were 
annoyed merely by the fact that Emanuel was different 
from the ordinary. Others were envious of his favour 
with the Gurau Lady. But the strongest influence of 
all was an occasional sermon of Pastor Beleites, from 
whose congregation Emanuel had just learned his bit- 
ter lesson. 


* * * * * * * * 


The same day Emanuel told Marie what had hap- 
pened to him. He could distinctly see that the girl had 
long been suppressing a secret sorrow, which his story 
reawakened. In her grief she betrayed herself. Her 
silent, flowing tears, a few bitter words suddenly re- 
vealed that she had been reproached for her association 
with him. 


Q74 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


As a matter of fact Krause, both alone and in her 
presence, had been taken severely to task on Emanuel’s 
account. One day during the winter Brother Nathaniel 
turned up at the school like a man pursued by the furies 
of an evil conscience, and fairly filled the warm, com- 
fortable room with his passionate language. He made 
much of the annoyance Emanuel Quint had caused him. 
He utterly condemned him. His former belief in the 
poor Fool and the sacred rite of baptism that he had 
performed weighed upon his conscience like mortal sin. 
The disciple and master of old he deemed rejected of 
God and led astray by the devil. Disturbed by terror- 
ising dreams, he was convinced that the Judge of the 
World, sitting on the Father’s right hand, would hold 
him responsible on Judgment Day for the soul of that 
sinning man. Krause tried to calm him. 

In opposition not only to brother Nathaniel, but also 
to Pastor Beleites, and even his own church patron, 
Krause insisted that Quint was a man without guile, a 
simple follower of the Saviour. But Emanuel’s ene- 
mies —- those whose belief was insulted, those whose 
caste consciousness was outraged by the Fool’s “ good 
luck °— increased in number. The Gurau Lady’s 
protection inspired envy. It was incomprehensible to 
them, and the only explanation they could find for it, in 
their vulgar conception of things, was that Quint was an 
impostor. 

Krause with his simple frankness fought down all 
arguments against Quint, sometimes calm, sometimes 
excited, but always steadfast. 

Quint was now informed of all this, and realised how 
little his retired life, lived neither for anybody’s good 
nor anybody’s ill, could shield him against the hateful 
powers of the world. Even the Gurau Lady’s au- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 275 


thority could not protect his quiet, retired exist- 
ence. The lovely asylum she had prepared for him 
suddenly seemed to be surrounded by wicked, lurking 
forces, which, in some way unknown to him, he had of- 
fended. He was not even allowed that other asylum, 
the home of teacher Krause. 

Here in the course of a beautiful autumn and winter 
Emanuel had become even more closely acquainted than 
in the Heidebrand family with the harmony of an intel- 
ligent, sunny Christianity. Here faith was something 
living, more nearly resembling the asters in the garden 
or the chirp of the canary in the window than a lesson 
learned by rote and drilled into one’s mind by a strict 
teacher. 

“Any religion that makes us gloomy is false,” 
Krause was wont to say. ‘‘ We may be forced into 
serving the devil, but the only way we can serve God 
is freely, with happy hearts.” 

So the atmosphere in his home was usually gay and 
full of song. The teacher’s love of his profession had 
arisen from his love of children. He himself was a 
great child, of merry glances and roguish jests testify- 
ing to the fresh enjoyment that had been granted him 
by God’s grace even in this life. 

Though respected far and wide by high and low 
alike, Krause had to listen to much outspoken cavilling 
on Emanuel’s account, and had to undergo experiences 
such as his unimpeachable fidelity to his vocation and 
his strong personality had hitherto spared him. Never, 
for instance, had Pastor Beleites, the school super- 
visor, found fault with him before the day he severely 
censured him for tolerating that dangerous fool Eman- 
uel Quint in the class room during school hours. The 
two men were old cronies, and Krause, firm and en- 


276 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ergetic as he was, had laughingly upheld his side, but 
did not succeed in stemming the insulting stream of 
insistent advice. ‘The pastor even dared to denounce 
Quint’s and Marie’s intercourse as a grave danger. 
This almost produced a sudden rupture in the old 
friendship. 

That Sunday afternoon in February, when Marie on 
a walk across the fields along by-ways, told the Fool in 
Christ all these things, he gave no direct reply, but 
made fragmentary remarks reminiscent of the New 
Testament, and Marie could not tell what was stirrmg 
in him. 

“ If these men be already offended in me, how greatly 
will they be offended in me in the days to come!” 

* God is with me, and I am with God.”’ 

“‘T have preached like John, and publicly exhorted 
the people to repent. When they persecuted me there- 
for, I did not complain. But who will explain to me 
why they persecute me now that the light is hidden 
under the bushel? ” 

Staring in front of him he repeated several times 
meditatively : 

“ Father, forgive them; for they know not what they 
do.”? 

He sighed: 

** Silence is sin.” 

“The time is fulfilled,’ he declared, and sighed, 
and sighed again: 

“The Son of man must remain a pilgrim in this 
world. He that went before me had no fixed abode on 
earth. It is said of Him, ‘The Son of man hath not 
where to lay his head.’ ” 

Marie returned home with Quint at supper time. 
While Quint looked through some books in the living- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST Q77 


room, she reported to her father what had happened 
to him and the things he had said to her on the walk. 
Krause, taken aback and excited, instantly went in to 
speak to Quint. 

The conversation lasted for hours. Krause ex- 
plained to Quint in detail his position with the local 
powers, and even went farther, putting it to Quint 
candidly as an older man, whether it would not be pos- 
sible for him to give up his whim of refusing money, 
since it so excited the people, and he counselled Quint 
occasionally to go to church on Sundays, whenever pos- 
sible to Pastor Beleites’s church. The fact that he was 
never seen at church was the chief source of the peo- 
ple’s bitter feelings against him. 

But Krause, for all his good, wise advice, met with 
unflinching resistance. 

With the greatest caution, yet with cordial insistence, 
the teacher now tried to work upon what he considered 
the weakest side in Emanuel’s character. Sitting there 
in his staid freshness, shifting the mouthpiece of his 
long pipe from one side of his mouth to the other, 
blowing serious clouds of smoke through his quivering 
nostrils, and in his high-spirited way shoving his em- 
broidered cap now over his right ear, now over his left, 
he looked like anything but a friend of eccentricity. 
So it was not Quint’s adventure with Pastor Beleites’s 
congregation and the hostility lurking behind their 
conduct that caused him the greatest concern. It was 
the fragmentary expressions that Quint had employed 
on his walk that afternoon with Marie. 

In distinction from many pious persons in his en- 
vironment Krause scarcely ever mixed Bible quotations 
with his ordinary talk. Quint, too, throughout that 
quiet period of his existence, had rarely found an oc- 


278 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


casion for doing so, and never in Krause’s presence. 
But gradually in private ways Krause had informed 
himself accurately of Quint’s past, and was compelled 
to admit to himself that the use of sacred words was a 
particularly evil habit of Quint’s, which gave great 
offence. Nevertheless, when he wanted to refer to the 
Bible phrases that Quint had used in Marie’s presence 
and wanted to show him that there was a vast differ- 
ence between the divine fate of the blessed Saviour of 
the world and the simple incident that had befallen 
Quint in the afternoon, the ready-witted man was at a 
loss for words. Before the look of Quint’s large, quiet 
eyes, he was unable to perform that surgical operation 
which he thought was necessary to prevent a relapse 
into Quint’s old dreaded folly, the sickness that had al- 
most been cured. 


CHAPTER XVI 


On a clear day in early March, while the workmen were 
airing the ‘ong rows of hotbeds in Heidebrand’s gar- 
den, a hideous fellow appeared among them, more 
nearly resembling a monkey or a pug than a human 
being. The men laughed, and poked fun at Bohemian 
Joe. He inquired for Quint, and they directed him to 
the head-gardener’s house. He stumped on his crooked 
legs to the entrance door, where he was met by the slen- 
der figure of Ruth Heidebrand. He stood gazing at 
her for a long time, again asked for Quint, and when 
told where he was went up the creaking stairs to his 
attic room. 

Bohemian Joe was the fourth or fifth messenger 
whom the Valley Brethren had sent to Quint. Emanuel 
told each of them very firmly that it was his duty in 
Christ and the duty of all Christian brethren to await 
patiently the coming day. In the meantime he advised 
each one to go about his allotted work — advice which 
they did not heed. 

Quint, the poor Messias designatus of the Valley 
Brethren, asked Bohemian Joe what he wished, and 
Joe, without any preliminaries, came out bluntly with 
the stupid, bald question, ‘‘ What is your mystery, the 
mystery of the kingdom of God?” 

Emanuel looked at him, and smiled. 

That sweet, scarcely perceptible smile which some- 
times played about Emanuel’s lips was something that 
won him many hearts. It was irresistible. Martha 


279 


280 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Schubert, Hedwig Krause, Ruth Heidebrand and Marie 
Krause dreamed of it. It seemed to understand so much 
and forgive so much. It was like the spring sun, 
which melts the ice and causes the buds to blossom. It 
drew swarms of children about him. It was a seduc- 
tive smile, and had its effect even upon Bohemian Joe. 
Down on his knees he went, panting like a dog, and tried 
to kiss Emanuel’s hand. 

Quint grew serious. He asked how the Brethren 
were faring and what was the cause of his blunt ques- 
tion. | 

Joe told him a great dispute had arisen among the 
Brethren concerning this mystery. Some said that to 
believe in Quint’s message was in itself to have the 
mystery revealed. For the mystery was nothing else 
than the knowledge that Quint was the new Messiah. 
Others maintained that though Emanuel was in a cer- 
tain sense the Saviour come back to earth again, yet 
he who had thought well on the words he uttered on 
various occasions must know that there still remained 
an ultimate mystery which Emanuel kept to himself. 
There were still others, who in the teeth of the fanatical 
faith of the Scharf brothers dared to assert that it was 
not yet proved whether Quint was indeed the anointed 
of the Lord. This was the question in which Quint’s 
mystery was involved, and which provoked a raging 
conflict. 

Bohemian Joe, in his peculiar way, a mixture of se- 
riousness and drollery, described the controversy. The 
Scharf brothers out-howling the other contestants, had 
declared that Emanuel Quint must be the most prodi- 
gious impostor in the world if after expressing him- 
self as distinctly as he had, he did not bear within him 
the blood of the Son and the spirit of the Father. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 281 


Poor Emanuel was a seeker after God. Every other 
striving, every other purpose was thrust into the back- 
ground to make way to this seeking, this finding, this 
apprehending, this holding of God. But he sought 
not God with the understanding. He sought Him with 
love. And his love, as if in possession of the divine, 
poured forth a veritable sun of grace over brothers 
and sisters, old and young, the children, the lame, the 
deaf and the blind. The divine light kindled a divine 
light, and estrangement between Quint and his brother 
or his sister vanished like a cloud, and pure union in 
God was attained. Thus he felt himself at one with 
Marie and even with Ruth Heidebrand. And he stood 
in the same relation to the Scharf brothers, and to all 
those that labour and are heavy-laden, whom he may 
have met in an hour of common devotion, or only spir- 
itually in the kingdom of divine love. 

But now a rude hand was raised from among them, 
menacing him. 

For weeks Quint had been suffering from sleepless 
nights. Until then the serenity of nis life, its settled 
evenness, its pleasantness, had lulled him into harmo- 
nious calm, and had moderated the passion of his life 
in God. Those, therefore, who became acquainted with 
him in that period and never met him again retained 
the pleasantest memories of him. Quint never ap- 
proached his fellow-men except through the ethereal 
medium of the divine. He never spoke of his own 
personal affairs, and never interested himself in the 
personal affairs of others. To natures like Marie 
Krause’s that very personal inaccessibility seemed to 
have the quality of divine nearness. 

From this state of half-slumber Emanuel Quint was 
now aroused by one knock after another on the door 


282 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of his house. A cloud was lifted, and he found himself 
with his love and with God in his heart naked, exposed 
to the demands of his suffering brethren, to the merci- 
less hatred of the world, and to the imperative call of his 
conscience, or perhaps of Satan. 

The word impostor touched him to the quick, al- 
though he felt perfectly free of the sin it implied. A 
wave of indignation swept through him, but immedi- 
ately passed, giving way to a spirit of reconciliation. 
Those men erred, they were deceived, but they had 
sought Christ even as he had sought Him, and he re- 
mained bound to them in Christ. 

He was well aware of the danger of their tenacity. 
The brothers Martin and Anton Scharf followed him 
like the leaders of a pack of hounds hungering for 
salvation. Since they had once got on his trail in 
the market-place where he had delivered his first ser- 
mon, they had never dropped his scent, and followed 
him across streams, over mountains, through gorges. 
Nevertheless, he did not regard them as beasts of prey, 
but rather as harassed sheep of a stray flock, and felt 
bound to them more through comradeship and love than 
through fear. He looked upon himself as their re- 
sponsible shepherd. 

Yet, while Bohemian Joe was speaking to him, the 
poor Messiah anticipated the horrors of a fateful mo- 
ment, when the merciless hunters would close around 
him. He felt the invisible enemies gathering about his 
lair. Or were they judges and was he burdened with 
some guilt for which he had to atone? No. At the 
utmost he had been guilty before his account with God 
was squared through Jesus the mediator, through Je- 
sus who was in him, who was indeed his soul. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 283 


“ Not I, but Christ, liveth in me.” This saying of 
the apostle Paul had become his very being. 

Unfortunately from his regeneration arose the Fool’s 
sad fate as the seed sprouts from mother earth. 

“TI have celebrated the mystical marriage,” he said 
to himself. His prison dream, in which the Saviour 
entered into him, was an ever-present reality to his 
soul. “If I am Jesus, then I bear his responsibility. 
I am Jesus, and I bear it,” he reasoned. ‘In this 
sense the Valley Brethren in calling me the Saviour and 
demanding His works from me are right.” 

It may be said that Quint’s consciousness of being 
the Saviour coarsened in proportion as he was forced 
to adapt it to the gross, crude, sordid demands of his 
community. 

The conversation between Quint and Bohemian Joe 
would have come to an end with Quint’s quiet words of 
greeting to the Brethren and a strong admonition to 
possess their souls in patience, and their question about 
the mystery would have been left unanswered, had not 
Bohemian Joe after some hesitation begun to speak 
again, and revealed more and more details, until so 
strange a story was unfolded that Quint jumped up 
from his seat horrified, and punctuated the conclusion 
with a blow of his fist upon the table. 

Ruth Heidebrand the whole time had been hiding 
behind the door in the room where the bulbs were kept. 
She had heard the entire conversation and through the 
crack in the door she could observe the Fool’s face. 
Never had she seen her idol in such a rage. 

‘Men should not put new wine into old bottles,” he 
cried, and dropping the biblical mode of speech, went 
on excitedly: “Go and tell the Brethren that what 


284 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


they are doing is an abomination, it is not serving God. 
Tell them the Saviour is in God and God is in Him, 
and that He does not sit on God’s right, nor does God 
the Father sit on His left. Their wrangling for pri- 
ority in the kingdom of God is just the same as the 
soldiers wrangling and casting lots for the garments 
of the dead Christ on the cross. There now! That is 
my mystery, you brutalised slaves of greed, you hellish 
bedlamites! Did you make the Son of man a judge 
on the last day? Then you are criminals yourselves. 
Did you make him a king with a sceptre and sword, the 
Jord of the earth? Then you have set a bloody fool’s 
crown upon him and disenthroned him as king of 
heaven. You fools and servants of fools, do you serve 
for pay? Then get behind your plough and eat your 
fodder. Do you want to gather treasures, to gain gold 
and rich garments? Then go and serve Mammon, not 
God. What do you want with your millennium, that 
one brief day before God? To eat, drink, whore, sit 
at the head of the table, curse, damn, condemn to death, 
sing trembling praise to a terrible Adonai, whose left 
hand caresses you, and whose right hand snatches your 
brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers from their graves, 
myriads upon myriads, and hurls them into the jaws of 
hell. Do you covet that millennium more than the life 
in Jesus Christ for all eternity? Woe to you if the 
heavenly kingdom means nothing more than a refresh- 
ing drink to quench your burning thirst for revenge! 
Tell the Brethren that in heaven the last will be as good 
as the first and the first as good as the last.” 

Quint’s first impulse was to shake off the obtrusively 
ridiculous following of the Valley Brethren, who had 
made him the object of a rank superstition, but the next 
instant he repented, and although he recognised the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 285 


impulse as the voice of sound reason, he commanded it 
to be silent in the name of what he thought was all 
mercy, all love, and the embodiment of divine wisdom. 

This, the will of the Saviour Himself, bade Emanuel 
betake himself that very evening to the Brethren of the 
Valley. 


* * % * * * * % 


He sent Bohemian Joe in advance to announce his 
coming. Everybody in the house had already gone to 
sleep, and he departed without taking leave of the fam- 
ily. His heart was heavy. Although he meant to re- 
turn to the garden, and actually did return within a 
few days, he had a premonition that he would soon 
leave his retreat forever. He trod softly, paused an 
instant at Ruth’s bed-room door, and stepped out into 
the lonely brightness of the moonlight. He hesitated 
again at the gate in the park wall, and looked pensively 
about the place to which he had been transplanted like 
a tree from rocky soil. 

But when he reached the road behind the park his 
sadness left him, and he became resolute and light of 
heart. He looked behind, and he looked ahead to what 
was in store for him. Emanuel Quint was filled with 
gratitude. He appreciated the goodness of the Gurau 
Lady, of the Krauses, the Heidebrands and all those 
who had admitted him to their higher order of life. 
Nevertheless he stepped along the road with a surer, 
freer gait than he had for months. 

He was again acting upon his own responsibility. 
He trod upon the earth, the common mother of all, and 
over him was the vault of the heavens, the common roof 
of all. He was no inmate of a shelter, no recipient of 
alms. All the gentle fetters and considerations that 


286 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


had insidiously wound themselves around him, and put 
ever stronger constraint upon him now suddenly 
dropped away. For the first time since his confinement 
in the hospital he felt he was again the guest, the friend, 
the king, the god of his inner self in a broad, spacious 
abode worthy of him. 

He stepped forward like God. 

Emanuel was humble in relation to divine things, but 
filled with that exalted pride which comes from a man’s 
consciousness of his mission. It inspired him with re- 
newed strength. It was a pride compatible with divine 
humility. He knew that the lukewarm kindness of the 
friends he had acquired on the Lady’s estate had 
snatched him out of the fiery vortex of his existence and 
placed him in cool, calm shallows with neither eddy nor 
depth, safe, therefore, against drowning. They were 
honest, worthy people all, and in their kind treatment 
of him fancied they were performing the Christian 
duty of charity. They did not know that in Emanuel’s 
opinion they were doing this only on condition, or, at 
least, in the hope, that he would deny Jesus Christ. 

He waved his arms and smote the air as if, like Simon 
Peter, he were holding the sword of Malchus. In the 
holy rage of his peculiar battling for God he now al- 
most more dearly loved the enemies that had driven him 
from his retreat than the friends that had provided him 
with it and wished to keep him there. 

The Valley Brethren were threatened with the visita- 
tion of justice. But their error, which Quint desired to 
destroy, exalted him. They were devoted to him with 
all their foolish faith, with all their foolish desires, and 
with a wild, blind passion. Those whom he had left 
behind him merely tolerated him. It is one thing to be 
tolerated, even though out of goodness of heart. It is 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 287 


another thing to be fervently desired, ay, to be deified, 
even though in simplicity and foolishness. 

The Fool, it is true, had not the slightest knowledge 
of all that had happened at the meetings of the Valley 
Brethren in the mill. 


* * * * % * * * 


Quint found the community in a state bordering on 
barbarism. 

They had spent the winter in Straube’s mill going 
and coming, hoping and waiting, praying and singing 
and “ drinking the holy blood of Jesus,” as they said. 
The miller Straube seemed to be by no means the loser 
for having the Valley Brethren assemble in his mill, al- 
though, with his turn for adventure, he would probably 
have opened the door of his decayed, secluded mill re- 
gardless of material considerations. 

Dibiez had gradually introduced some of the orgiastic 
devotional features of the Salvation Army, and at the 
suggestion of Anton Scharf the Valley Brethren now 
called themselves “‘ The Fellowship of the Mystery,” 
from the Epistle to the Ephesians. 

The degeneracy that by degrees set in at the meet- 
ings and made continuous headway was caused partly 
by the Salvation Army tambourine and David’s harp, 
partly by the mystical character of the community. 
The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles have always 
furnished the romantic impulse in man with ample pre- 
texts for the formation of secret societies. The indi- 
vidual lost in the crowd would fain single himself out 
by laying claim to the possession of a mystery, which 
invests him with knowledge and leaves the mass in ig- 
norance. Possessed of such wisdom he regards himself 
and a greater or lesser number of comrades as called 


288 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


and chosen. Without their mysterious knowledge they 
would be no more than a few drops in the sea, insig- 
nificant particles compelled to live, according to their 
insignificance, unnoticed and unregarded. Even chil- 
dren possessing a secret in common swell with a sense 
of importance. 

Dibiez also introduced the custom of confessing aloud 
at the meetings, and the Valley Brethren began to tell 
of their conversions and the way they had come to see 
the light through the grace of Jesus Christ. These 
somewhat flat and mechanical expressions of religious 
awakening, common to certain sects through many cen- 
turies and still in full swing in the huge camp of the 
Salvation Army, were soon thrust into the background 
by other manifestations of a frenzied, eruptive nature. 

The brethren and sisters began to speak “ with 
tongues,” wherein tailor Schwabe especially distin- 
guished himself. He it was who first began to 
prophesy, who introduced the apocalyptic tone, the 
apocalyptic ravings and vagaries in the community of 
the saints, and designated himself, the Scharf brothers, 
and the weaver Schubert as saints, speaking, as he 
thought, under apostolic inspiration. The stronger 
the consciousness grew among the speakers and the 
listeners that they were the saintly and the elect, the 
more fanatical and excessive became their pious ex- 
ercises, 

Anyone who had known these people in their former 
state, when bent and silent under the yoke of daily toil 
and want they went about the earning of their wretched 
food and direst necessities, would have been enlightened 
as to man’s marvellous capacity for transformation. 
Tailor Schwabe, formerly the picture of retiring shy- 
ness, was here a commanding figure. On one occasion 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 289 


certain ecstasies, which he was the first to manifest, al- 
most made him the undisputed leader of the Valley 
Brethren. He always opened up his devotions with the 
same words: ‘Silence! Silence! People of the Lord! 
Wherever His word is proclaimed, He is present! 
Silence! God is present!’ And so he proceeded. It 
is readily to be imagined that in the sonorous tones of 
God’s herald there was little trace of the shy smuggler 
of old. 

When the Brethren were not holding meetings, or 
praying, or sleeping, they disputed about the meaning 
of God’s word in the Bible. Little wonder that their 
dull, heavy minds grew more and more confused wres- 
tling with texts from the Gospels, the Acts, and the 
Epistles, not to speak of the Revelation of St. John 
and the Old Testament. Many words from the burn- 
ing souls of the apostles wrought fearful havoc with 
their misty, infantile brains. 

The foolishness of the Brethren, which grew more 
dangerous from day to day, was radically reinforced 
when Bohemian Joe with his thick finger under the line 
spelled out the Bible verse: ‘‘ Who shall lay anything 
to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” 
Another added this text: ‘* There is therefore now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” A 
third found a similar passage. Finally everything 
seemed to assume a sinister aspect for those hungering 
creatures to whom the voluptuous joys of the millennium 
began to beckon alluringly. Their hopes turned into a 
rigid, stationary delusion. The biblical commandment 
to love one’s neighbour as oneself stepped out from the 
all too limited sphere circumscribing their spiritual ex- 
istence and entered the region of the animal, arousing 
its slumbering passions. Their anxious waiting and 


290 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


yearning for salvation became a burning thirst, a fever- 
ish lust, an unstilled hunger, a consuming malady. 

And one night after they had repeatedly moved 
heaven and earth, and for many successive hours had in- 
voked bliss, sin, punishment, grace, God the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, the New Jerusalem, and Judg- 
ment Day, the meeting culminated in a terrible, savage 
' paroxysm. 

In the world of the spirit the Valley Brethren had 
exhausted nearly all possibilities. They had heard 
spirits knock, had seen ghosts, walking apparitions, 
and the disembodied spirits of the dead. What now 
followed was the outbreak of a physical disease epidemic 
in the fanatical middle ages. It began in this way. 

They were holding a meeting in the miller’s granary, 
dimly lighted by three or four lanterns. A _ strong, 
healthy peasant girl of eighteen, Therese Katzmarek, 
in a spirit of contrition, overwrought by the constant 
shouts and calls, suddenly began to shake her head in 
a most peculiar manner. At first it moved slowly, then 
faster and faster, until it reached such velocity that 
many of the brethren and sisters noticed it, interrupted 
their devotions, and tried to stop the girl’s strange be- 
haviour. But there was no stopping her. They called 
to her, they gripped her head in their horny peasants’ 
hands as in a vice. Of no avail. Her head continued 
to move as soon as it was freed. The girl’s pretty, in- 
nocent, childlike face flew convulsively from side to side. 
Her strong chin bounded from shoulder to shoulder with 
such rapidity that it made only a streak to the eyes of 
the onlookers. The poor head seemed to have become 
a being apart. Like a captured bird choking in the 
attempt to escape from the snare, it seemed to be bent 
on breaking loose from the body at any cost. Natu- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 291 


rally she attracted general attention, and everybody 
became silent. In this silence the helpless tossing about 
of the girl’s head combined with the noise it made as- 
sumed even a more gruesome aspect. At first her plait 
flapped across her breast and shoulders. When the 
motion grew more violent, her hair loosened, and cracked 
against her face like a whip. Her open mouth, her 
eyes staring rigidly in horrified astonishment were awful 
to look upon. There seemed to be no hope for her. 
Each moment the Brethren expected to see her head, 
though set on a full neck, fly from her body. 

At that moment a noise arose in another part of the 
granary, and everybody turned to see what it was. 
The head of a little old woman with a pale, wrinkled 
face was beginning to perform the same wild antics. 
The next instant a third woman was struck to the 
ground, the wife of a brickmaker who did the same work 
as her husband in a neighbouring brickyard. She 
turned and twisted and babbled, and her body shot up 
with a peculiar jerk, like a large fish out of water. 

When these three victims succumbed — victims of 
long waking, praying, and singing, of self-accusation 
and contrition, of all possible heavenly and hellish illu- 
sions — there arose a general shout of terror. A single 
voice raised in an involuntary cry above the others gave 
the incident a sinister turn. 

“The end of the world is here! Judgment Day is 
here! ” 

With the exception of miller Straube, there was not 
one in the whole assembly that was not seized with the 
same mad frenzy. Many more began to roll on the 
ground. The night was dark, the trees rustled. The 
larger number began to push and rush to get into the 
open. When outside, some listened for the first sounds 


292 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of the approaching Judgment Day. Others fell to the 
ground, and pointed to the heavens, screaming that they 
saw God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost sitting en- 
throned on the clouds surrounded by angels. Some 
climbed on trees. The children cried. Martin and 
Anton Scharf, in order to see something or other more 
clearly, waded up to above their knees in the dark, 
gurgling stream. 

Who does not know that the night alone is sufficient 
to unchain all the demons in, man, while the sun covers 
the depths, and lights the soul’s way to order? ‘The 
things that happened in those moments of general tur- 
moil the day would never have permitted. 

The tie that unites all communities in Jesus Christ 
is love. As Paul says, in the name of the Saviour a 
wall is removed between man and man. The danger in 
such a tearing down of walls is evident. But when 
in addition men without a call preach an apostolic doc- 
trine such as this, “ that man is justified by faith alone, 
that faith removes mountains, and that to those who 
are justified by faith there is no law,” then the danger 
is great indeed. 

In short, seeking for help, or not knowing what they 
did in their fear, terror, joy, and madness, they caught 
hold of one another, and embraced and kissed. In the 
miller’s little vegetable garden feebly illumined by a 
ray of light from the window, a brother and sister were 
seen whirling about in a dance. Women—or was it 
one woman only? — ran about the mill with flowing hair 
and skirts like a prying ghost. Some women, their 
nerves completely unstrung, for some reason tore the 
coarse shirts from their shoulders and the skirts from 
their waists, and perhaps under some impulse to immo- 
late themselves, ran stark naked up the slope into the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 293 


field. ‘They must have had in mind, more or less re- 
motely, the parable of the foolish and the wise virgins. 
Through the cunning device of the arch-Enemy, the 
heavenly bridegroom was in some instances replaced by 
Brethren fired by the same orgiastic frenzy. 

Miller Straube took care of Therese Katzmarek, who 
had recovered in the meantime. Bohemian Joe slunk 
about silently with glowing eyes. The things he per- 
petrated in the dark and the general confusion never 
became known. 

These religious orgies were repeated. News of them 
gradually leaked out, and one day reached the ears of 
Nathaniel Schwarz, who passed sleepless nights in con- 
sequence. Finally at the risk of having his fair name 
implicated in a very unsavoury matter, he determined 
to intervene, and try to put a stop to the Brethren’s 
shameful doings. One evening, after the congregation 
had been regaled by the extravagant effusions of crazy 
tailor Schwabe, Nathaniel Schwarz arose, and took his 
place at the speaker’s table in Straube’s granary. 

But for his conclusion, his exhortation would un- 
doubtedly have had a wholesome effect. His warnings, 
his admonitions, his violent apostrophes, and passionate 
threats impressed his hearers, the Scharf brothers espe- 
cially. It gave them a feeling of relief. They had 
been troubled by Quint’s absence and the wild doings 
of the Brethren. Unfortunately Brother Nathaniel 
committed the mistake of attacking the very source of 
the Brethren’s foolishness. Thus unwittingly adding 
fuel to their frenzy, he was made to feel their mania in 
all its naked violence. 

“IT knew your Emanuel Quint,” he said, “ probably 
before any of you ever heard of him.” 

He went on to tell that not only the testimony of 


294 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


trustworthy strangers, but even of his father and 
mother proved, to put it mildly, that Quint had been 
following the wrong path ever since his boyhood. 

“It is not my intention to reprove the faithful of 
this assembly for having fallen into the error of think- 
ing Emanuel Quint a favoured minister of the Word. 
I myself was deceived almost as greatly as you by a 
certain plainness and gentleness in him. I am even 
willing to confess to a sin that I committed against him 
and myself. Many a time have I fervently prayed to 
God to forgive me for that sin.” 

Nathaniel now gave a faithful account of his morn- 
ing walk with Emanuel and what might virtually be 
called his baptism, an act to which he had been misled 
in a fit of emotion now incomprehensible to him. 

“ J will be candid,” he continued, “ and admit that*I 
did not administer the baptism in the proper spirit. 
Still less was it received in the proper spirit. You see, 
I am willing to confess to my part of the guilt in the 
offence that Emanuel Quint is giving. Had it not been 
for my baptism, he would scarcely have felt himself so 
strongly confirmed in his overweening, impious pre- 
sumption.” 

The last word was hardly out of Brother Nathaniel’s 
mouth when a murmur of dissatisfaction went through 
the assembly. Above the others rose the voice of a 
ragpicker, who had joined Quint’s community in Giers- 
dorf, had been present at the night attack, and had 
received some injuries. He was over fifty years old, 
pale, wizened, greedy for gain from long years of petty 
trafficking. There was a feverish gleam of suffering 
in his eyes, restless impatience, desperate avidity. It 
is astonishing how eagerly a hypochondriac clings to 
life, if only by bitter toil he can manage to keep away 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 295 


dire want — astonishing how he fears death. It is the 
fear of death that makes men reach out for the phantom 
of eternal life. It is cowardice that drives naive per- 
sons into the snares of the quacks of the body and the 
soul. 

This ragpicker had snatched desperately at the illu- 
sions and myths that had formed about Quint, as a 
drowning man snatches at a straw. 

He cried that Quint was either what he himself said 
he was, or else he was the greatest scoundrel, the most 
colossal impostor that ever trod the face of the globe. 
And he attacked the speaker with such fury, with such 
a stream of savage words that a shiver ran through the 
entire assembly. Brother Nathaniel stood at the table 
aghast. 

He was called in turn liar, traitor, the apostle of 
Satan, and lastly Judas. That word fell like a spark 
on a cask of powder. The whole audience exploded. 
To escape the consequences Nathaniel had to effect a 
speedy retreat. 

After Nathaniel Schwarz’s visit, the Brethren’s 
frenzy reached an even higher pitch, though it started 
the discussion among the leaders of the faithful, which 
resulted in sending Bohemian Joe to Emanuel. 

When Bohemian Joe returned and announced that 
Emanuel would himself come to the “* Brethren of the 
Valley,” or to the “ Fellowship of the Mystery,” their 
excitement again assumed the strangest forms. There 
was weeping and exultation. They greeted one another 
with “ Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
Lord.” They told one another of Quint’s miracles. 
They gave fantastic, glorified accounts of his life since 
his delivery of the sermon in the market-place. <A for- 
midable list of insane delusions was evolved. The 


_. 


296 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Scharfs declared they felt his approach bodily. Women 
and girls who had gone away for a while leaving the 
rest of the congregation to the singing of Kyrie eleison 
and Hallelujah, which they kept up for hours at a time, 
came running back out of breath to announce that they 
had seen the Saviour approaching the mill. One had 
caught sight of him gliding across the meadow, another 
across the field behind the thicket, a third across the 
stream. 

As far as he understood it, Bohemian Joe delivered 
Quint’s reproachful message to the inner circle, which 
consisted of the Scharf brothers, tailor Schwabe, Schu- 
bert, Krezig, the choleric ragpicker, the miller, and a 
few others. They listened eagerly, anxiously. "Though 
they understood that their idol was indignant at some 
mistake they had committed, they were still farther 
strengthened in their mad faith by Bohemian Joe’s 
account. 


CHAPTER XVII 


ArT nine o’clock in the evening after the repeated 
attempts of various members of the community to catch 
sight of Quint, Martha Schubert created a veritable 
pandemonium by dashing into the barn and crying, 
** He is coming! Heis coming!” She told the Scharf 
brothers, she told her father, she told everybody, “ He 
is coming —there—down the road back of the 
bridge! ” 

After the general excitement had subsided and in the 
expectant silence every heart was almost standing still, 
a dark figure appeared in the gateway and stepped into 
the moonlight under one of the arches. 

It was a stirring moment for Quint and the assembly, 
as big with fate as it was stirring. Advancing slowly 
and peering intently he saw in the middle of the yard a 
silent multitude with folded arms kneeling in rows — 
some with their foreheads to the ground, others with 
their faces turned heavenward, some weeping, others 
mumbling prayers. 

Even miller Straube, who was not much to be trusted 
in matters of faith and seldom spoke about them, de- 
clared he had struggled with all his reason, in vain, 
against the powers that threw him prostrate before 
Quint. 

This double, or rather triple, deception — the congre- 
gation deceiving itself and the Fool, and the Fool de- 
ceiving himself only —is perhaps not to be dismissed 
off-hand or regarded as a sheer absurdity. In the first 

297 


298 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


place they were all deceived deceivers. Secondly, there 
was something in the true inwardness of the event that 
for a few moments at least gave it the semblance of a 
mystery. God is a spirit. Jesus the Nazarene is re- 
garded less as the incarnation of God than as the vessel 
of God. Quint knew, or believed, that the spirit of God 
was in him. His crude, clownish followers, it is true, did 
not see in him that spirit, but the vessel long ago shat- 
tered to pieces, Jesus, the son of the carpenter of Naz- 
areth. Nevertheless, what sent them prostrate before 
Quint in fear and trembling was a profound experience 
of the spirit communicated to them from him. Now 
who will say with certainty that in this material error 
God, the Christ, was not present in spiritual truth? 

The event proved momentous to Quint and many of 
his adherents. It re-secured the bond of union between 
them, and consecrated him to a new mystical mission. 

Emanuel standing in the yard looked upon the kneel- 
ing men and women. Strange to say, not even after he 
had recovered from his first astonishment and excite- 
ment did these deceived people seem to him either ridicu- 
lous or fearful in their madness. Quint possessed ad- 
mirable self-control, which served him well in every 
situation in life. It was innate self-discipline with none 
of the marks of the foreign or acquired. Of his own 
force, without the aid of education, he had risen to 
mastery of himself, had subdued every passion within 
him, except his love of God and the divine. Unless he 
so desired, his outward conduct never betrayed his emo- 
tions. 

Profoundly touched though he was, his voice sounded 
calm, as he asked for Anton and Martin Scharf. ‘The 
brothers arose and went up to him and he walked with 
them in silence—the kneeling congregation thought 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 299 


he glided — into the house. The chained dog whined 
humbly as he passed. 


% cad * * w % % 


With Emanuel’s arrival in the mill quiet and order 
were restored as if by a miracle. The orgiastic spirit 
gave way to a meek, sobered waiting. Soft whispering 
took the place of the loud singing and praying, and 
Dibiez’s tambourine and David’s harp were not even 
touched. 

Martha Schubert and others passed in and out of the 
house and brought reports to the hungry crowd waiting 
outside as if there were a famine and the king were at 
the table inside. Even miller Straube, who had always 
looked upon the doings of the Brethren with an air of 
impenetrable or ironical reserve, was now serious and 
solemn. For the first time he ceased to be the self-con- 
scious, genial host, and became the modest guest, like 
all the rest. 

Emanuel had withdrawn into a little room. The 
crowd waiting anxiously in the hall were told that he 
would speak first to the smaller circle of the elect seeing 
each member separately. The mill, only a short time 
before the scene of tumultuous life, suddenly became as 
silent as the grave. 

The first one called into Quint’s room was Martin 
Scharf, who remained closeted with him for about half an 
hour. Anton Scharf, Schubert, Dibiez, Krezig the rag- 
picker, Zumpt, miller Straube, and tailor Schwabe fol- 
lowed in turn, each almost beside himself with excite- 
ment as he was summoned by the miller’s maid into the 
presence of the “ Giersdorf God.” Cold perspiration 
stood on their foreheads. Their rough hands were like 
slabs of ice. 


300 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Their love, obedience, faith, their blind, unreasoning 
devotion were only heightened by these private inter- 
views, though Quint exacted from each a complete ac- 
count of the doings in the mill and condemned them 
without reserve. It seemed that his mere presence suf- 
ficed to make them sensible of the enormity of their 
offence, that contact with his person gave them the 
right instrument of measurement, put into their hands 
the plumb, the rule and the gauge, by which they im- 
mediately found that their house was crooked. 

He told Dibiez that the kingdom of God had noth- 
ing to do with outward poses and attitudes, a statement 
incomprehensible to the captain. He repudiated not 
only the Salvation Army tambourine, Dibiez’s guitar, 
the bacchantic hallelujah songs, but also the simple 
church hymns. This greatly astonished them, while in- 
creasing his authority. 

“When Jesus walked on earth the first time almost 
two thousand years ago,” he said, “ He did not sing. 
He spoke the pure word of God out of a simple, holy 
mouth.” 

Whether Quint was determined, at any cost, to quench 
the diseased spiritual fever in the mill or whatever his 
motive may have been, he advised them very strongly 
to give up confessing aloud and all so-called prophecy 
and public prayer. 

“Tf you must pray,” he added,—* the disciples of 
John the Baptist pray, the disciples of Jesus do not 
pray —then do it by yourselves in your own rooms. 
But I say unto you, it would go hard with you and the 
heavenly Father if He did not know your needs without 
your praying for them. The spirit of the Lord is a 
spirit of wisdom, a spirit of peace, a spirit of justice. 
Whatever it may be that creates in you images of ter- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 301 


ror, horror, or sensuality and causes you to worship 
them, it is not the spirit of the Father. Whatever it 
may be that tears away the bridges of light spanning 
the abysms of your natures, allowing the poisonous 
fumes, the benumbing exhalations of death to rise up 
and obscure the brightness of the life in Jesus, it is not 
the spirit of the Father.” 

The miller when in Emanuel’s presence could not 
wholly contro] himself or find the right answer to the 
Fool’s simple questions. He betrayed his guilty con- 
science, and gave contradictory answers in regard to 
the paroxysms that had seized the women. 

The next to be summoned was Therese Katzmarek. 
When alone with Quint, shudders ran through the 
girl’s body and she kissed his hands and feet shedding 
copious tears. He calmed her and she began to con- 
fess. All the Catholic fervour in her heart found a 
vent. Emanuel had merely intended to advise the girl 
in a kindly human way, but now he was made lord of her 
life and death. She told him of all her transgressions, 
how she had sinned against chastity with the miller him- 
self. 

Emanuel was profoundly stirred by these proofs of 
almost canine love and dependence. His mere presence 
rejoiced his followers and moved them to tears. Though 
he had come with the sole resolve to clean the nest, he 
now felt he should also like to be a shepherd of those 
poor, stray, helpless sheep. 

Throughout their lives they had hungered for the 
miller’s bread. Is it strange, then, that despite bodily 
want and dire poverty, they also hungered for spiritual 
bread? Is it any wonder that their onslaught upon 
the provision chambers of the Bible and their choice of 
nourishment was so ill-advised and helpless, in the ab- 


302 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


sence of that finer instinct that might have led them 
aright? 

That evening the starving men were fed at the doors 
with the miller’s bread, and were told it was to be the 
last meeting in the miller’s granary. They went away 
satisfied as to their bodily hunger, but not satisfied in 
their hope of hearing the idolised man speak or ever 
seeing him again. 

All who had spoken with Emanuel individually were 
now asked to gather in his room. Emanuel rose from 
his seat beside a round table, on which there was a 
lighted candle, and for half an hour the little room re- 
sounded with the guttural ring of his voice, high rather 
than deep, soft yet youthfully firm. 

He spoke chiefly against superstition. Beginning in 
a tone of simple seriousness he waxed indignant and 
rose to the heights of great wrath, a mood in him to 
which the Brethren were unaccustomed. 

“To-day, as in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, the 
earth is overgrown with rank weeds. We cannot form 
too exaggerated an idea of how the weed of superstition 
is spread throughout the world. Therefore, the mystery 
of the kingdom is still the same profound mystery as 
in Christ’s time, for no other reason than that it is 
hidden in caves and pits under the roots of a forest of 
superstition. From time to time Jesus comes walking 
through these woods wholly abandoned except by God. 
Thus you see me solitary and abandoned who am called 
among those whom God did predestinate to be con- 
formed to the image of His Son, that He might be the 
first-born among many brethren, as Paul says. You 
know nothing of this mystery which has been vouch- 
safed to me. And I cannot reveal it to you. None but 
the Father which is in me can reveal it to you. And if 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 303 


He reveals it to you, then come and call yourselves my 
brethren.” 

He bade them dismiss him from their thoughts and 
cease to follow him beginning with the dawn of the next 
day. At that they all cried aloud almost weeping: 

“Lord, Lord, cast us not away from thee, forsake 
us not!” 

But Emanuel continued to speak: 

** You have seen how even Brother Nathaniel, who 
baptised me, has fallen away. You did wrong in call- 
ing him Judas. True, it is written in the Bible: 
* Whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of 
hell fire’ But I say to you this Nathaniel is not my 
brother, because the Father did not esteem him worthy 
of knowing the mystery of the kingdom.” 

Schwabe cried: 

** Tell us the mystery, Lord! a 

In the excitement of seeing him again, and in their 
increased respect produced by his better clothing and 
better-groomed appearance, the designation ‘ Lord” 
came as naturally to them as if from long habit. 

“The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of 
mustard seed,” replied Quint. “It is like to a pearl 
for which I would give up all. It is like to a 
treasure in the field which I bought. It is within me. 
The kingdom of heaven is a child’s possession. But it 
is not your New Jerusalem, which comes falling out of 
the clouds with houses of gold, with valleys of jasper, 
sapphire and emerald. Why would you have it that to 
your terror the Father, Son and Holy Ghost should de- 
scend from the clouds amid tempest and the blare of 
trumpets, when the Father, Son and Ghost are unknown 
to you?” 

And now Emanuel Quint, the poor Fool in Christ, 


304 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


performed that sacrilege — let us hope it was unpre- 
meditated — which later so hardened the hearts of the 
judges who were trying him for a grave crime of which 
he was accused. 

As was the custom, a copy of the Bible was lying 
next to the candle on the table. Emanuel picked it up 
and threw it against the wall with such force that it was 
torn in shreds. 

The poor workingmen, though they started in terror, 
and in the first few seconds thought fire must come 
raining down from heaven, did not stir. 

*T forbid you that book! Do you hear? I forbid 
you that book!” Emanuel cried, by no means in the 
spirit of Luther. ‘I forbid you that book because it 
is a granary full of weeds, a granary full of deadly 
nightshade with only a few blades of good wheat be- 
tween. Here again the kingdom of God is like to a 
grain of mustard seed. 

‘What do you get out of that good book? What 
do you reap from that field of the good husbandman 
in which the enemy sowed bushels of tares while men 
slept? You fill your veins to bursting with torturing 
terrors, torturing desires, feverish images, which are 
nothing but lying hopes. You think when you are 
drunk with the poison of the poppy seed and are swollen 
with frivolous vanity into aping the Almighty by the 
laying on of hands and the performing of wonders, that 
you have received the Holy Ghost. What you have re- 
ceived is the plague of greed, the thirst of madness. 
Do you think the love of Jesus is the irresistible passion 
of greed? What would you have of God? Do you 
toss about and torment yourselves and scream your 
poor throats hoarse, that the heavenly Father should 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 305 


share the sceptre with you? Do you think that in your 
blind hands it is in better keeping than in His? 

“Why do you pull at God’s chair, at the hem of his 
garment? Why do you shriek and howl? Why do you 
knock against the gates of heaven with your fists, your 
coarse heels? Verily, I say unto you, you won’t plunge 
right into heaven, and there won’t be any bread or ham 
or the tiniest drop of whiskey there. 

* What do you get out of that book? Lies, lies and 
lies again. How luxuriantly lies still flourish in all 
gardens and fields! How lies still overgrow columns, 
gates, towers and temples! — the highest columns, the 
highest gates, the highest towers, the mightiest temples 
of gold, jasper and precious stones! ” 

The Brethren listening with high-arched brows un- 
derstood none too much of the violent discourse. But 
Quint continued. In his desire to shake off this nui- 
sance of the Valley Brethren he went on to warn and 
threaten them. The months he had spent in the gar- 
dener’s house, in the Gurau Lady’s library, as a Samar- 
itan with the Shepherd of Miltzsch, with Krause’s fam- 
ily and other good Christian families, could not pass 
over him without leaving a trace. Yet he did not look 
upon the Brethren from a new view-point of caste, nor 
was it a feeling of caste that widened the chasm between 
him and them. From his manner, and from the 
courageous strength of his words it was easy to con- 
clude that the force of his obstinate delusion had in- 
creased during his life spent in quiet. He did not suc- 
ceed in shaking his followers in their fixed belief, 
according to which he was their Saviour in distress, their 
new Messiah. Indeed he confirmed them in it. In 
listening to him they easily detected that in some: way 


306 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


or other his feeling of oneness with the Saviour was 
strengthened. And why should not their belief have 
been confirmed when he explicitly stated that he had 
arrived at the possession of the mystery of Jesus? 

In truth, Emanuel Quint scarcely saw the Saviour 
in the Bible any more, but — horrible to say — only in 
himself and as himself. Since his dream in prison, in 
which Christ literally entered into him, his holy mad- 
ness had found time to take firm root. The Fool’s 
manner was now affected by a something very different 
from his former ‘modesty and humility. His oppo- 
nents who later noticed this in his bearing called it.a 
ridiculous assumption of infallibility. Emanuel himself 
called it the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
Often when his friends reproached him with a certain 
cheerful assurance and unconcern, despite his character- 
istic gravity, he would say: 

“ Raise yourselves from the slavery of perishable mat- 
ter to the glorious liberty of the children of God.” 

During the meal which the strange Quint apostles 
and miller Straube took with Emanuel in the room 
where the baking was done, it was evident how little 
the essential purpose of Quint’s visit had been attained. 
Now it was Martin, now Anton, now the rag-picker 
who cautiously approached him with eager questions and 
listened apprehensively for his answers, and, it was 
Schwabe who said: 

“Yet, Lord, thou hast performed wonders on old 
Scharf, on Martha Schubert, on that crippled woman, 
on that old woman in the organ-grinder’s hut, and 
many others.” 

‘‘ What I did unintentionally and unconsciously,” re- 
plied Quint, “if I have done anything at all, was not 
done by me, but by the Father.” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 307 


* But Jesus performed miracles.” 

* Like myself,’ said Quint, “in this and no other 
sense.” 

Though he entered upon an explanation, he could not 
- rid his coarse-grained companions of the opinion that 
Jesus and he, he and Jesus had performed the same 
miracles. 

“Why do you try to understand God’s miracles,” 
was his explanation, ‘‘ since you do not yet understand 
all the prodigious wonders with which the Father has 
surrounded you? You ridiculous triflers, cannot you 
see the woods for the trees? What are you? What am 
I? Are we by one hair less than the greatest wonder? 
Would you know what to ask of God that is as won- 
derful as the thousandth part of a lily or a cornflower 
in the field, the throat or the feathers of a single night- 
ingale, not to mention the whole great, rocky, blossom- 
ing earth, or the infinite firmament with all its stars? 
He who seeks signs was born deaf, dumb and blind. 
You know that no sign can be given to such a genera- 
tion.” 

“Lord, if we have not prayed in the right spirit, 
teach thou us,” said Anton Scharf to Quint. 

* Pray, ‘ Thy Kingdom come!’ ” was the answer. 


* * * *% * * cg 


A woman, a girl of fourteen, a boy of twelve and 
another boy of nine, the wife and children of the mil- 
ler’s man-servant, were standing outside the window 
staring in at the supper in the baking-room. Now and 
then the servant himself also came up to take a look. 
It was a curiously biblical sight, Emanuel Quint like 
the Saviour at the Last Supper sitting among his dis- 
ciples. ‘The onlookers could not turn their eyes away. 


308 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The long table was covered with a clean, gaily-coloured 
cloth. ‘Two huge platters were sending up steam, and 
Anton Scharf, his face beaming, went from guest to 
guest and filled their glasses with a dark wine which 
Bohemian Joe had contributed. Sometimes the sav- 
‘our himself drank. When he spoke, the person ad- 
dressed would jump up from his seat full of zeal and 
awe. 

Sometimes a ripple of hearty merriment and laugh- 
ter went through the whole company. It seemed that 
not infrequently the lips of the new Messiah curled over 
a jest. 

Of a sudden the children of the miller’s servant no- 
ticed a strange young girl standing next to them. 
They had not heard her come, and stared at her with 
great, astonished, stupid eyes. The girl paid no at- 
tention to them. She seemed to want nothing but, 
like them, to look into the room undisturbed. 

She was slim, had finely shaped ankles and tapering 
fingers which showed in the black silk mittens she wore. 
A dark cape with a red-lined hood covered her narrow 
shoulders. Her face, a long oval with great long- 
lashed eyes, had all the tender charm of untouched vir- 
ginity. She was carrying a hat trimmed with dark rib- 
bons in her hand. The hem of her simple dress did not 
reach to her ankles. At her slender waist it was held 
in by a broad girdle of black patent leather. When 
she turned, the light fell on two heavy dark plaits, 
which reached below her hips. 

It was astonishing to see a girl evidently from a re- 
fed home in such an environment. Yet like the other 
children, or rather more eagerly, she watched what was 
going on at the strange meal, at which most of the par- 
ticipants were uncouth boors. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 309 


The girl had been standing there a little while when 
Bohemian Joe left the table and drew near the window. 
All of a sudden his hideous face appeared directly in 
front of the group of onlookers. At the sight of him 
the little stranger, visibly alarmed, drew back into the 
dark. 

A few minutes later he stepped outside to take a look 
at the children. His prying eyes could not discover the 
girl, who kept herself hidden in the dark. He seemed 
to want to question the children, but suddenly left them 
and returned into the mill. 

In the meantime Emanuel, in the increasing fa- 
miliarity of the festive occasion — this reunion with his 
first friends, at bottom excellent souls, was a festive 
occasion to him, too— was questioned about various 
matters, still the object of the burning desire of hungry, 
waiting Christians. 

Would not Emanuel impart the mystery of the king- 
dom to each one of them by himself, one of the men 
asked. Schwabe in great anxiety observed that prob- 
ably the apostles of old, the twelve, had been called to 
be judges on Judgment Day. All of them were im- 
patient to know about when the millennium would come, 
when the Father, Son and Holy Ghost would finally 
show themselves, no longer in lowliness but in all their 
glory. 

Emanuel merely smiled and refused to take up their 
questions. He was sorry for the good people and bad 
Christians, as he called them to himself. Sometimes he 
shook his head sadly. At other times a smile would 
play about his mouth at the droll fears of the simple 
souls. And the blind leader of the blind, with genial 
irony, would stroke the shaggy heads of the Scharf 
brothers and the cheek of the hunchbacked tailor. 


310 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


But before retiring at twelve o’clock Emanuel got 
each and all of them to promise firmly to disperse the 
next day at dawn. 


ca * bd * * i % * 


Emanuel Quint awoke after scarcely more than an 
hour’s sleep. He rubbed his eyes, but still continued 
to see a dark shape at the little window of his room, 
under which the mill-race roared. He asked whether 
anyone was there, but received no answer and the slender 
figure at the window did not stir. The Fool’s heart 
throbbed mightily. He sprang out of the huge tester, 
dressed himself hastily, lit a light and recognised — or 
had already recognised — Ruth Heidebrand. 

The discovery almost robbed poor Quint of his pow- 
ers. Later he said that though he could not possibly 
foretell the exact ways that fate would choose, he had 
instantly anticipated the inevitable consequences of 
Ruth’s act, for which he was not responsible. 

His relation to Ruth was in every respect remark- 
able. Subsequently it was deduced from his  state- 
ments that he had a secret inclination for the undoubt- 
edly hysterical girl, otherwise no suspicion could have 
fallen upon him. Nevertheless, Ruth’s imprudent, ab- 
normal act, which robbed Quint of nearly all sympathy 
from the Gurau Lady, Ruth’s parents, Krause and 
many friends, and put weapons into the hands of his 
opponents, did not belong in poor Quint’s book of sins. 

When Quint finally recovered his self-command he be- 
gan to rebuke Ruth and was more violent in his con- 
demnation than ever before or after in his life. But 
the girl looked at him unwaveringly with her large 
moist eyes as if to say: “I do not fear the wrath of 
my Saviour, my good shepherd, who takes the stray 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 311 


sheep in his arms. I do not fear the wrath of him that 
is goodness itself, whose beam enters my eye and kin- 
dles within me a proud sacred fire.” 

The faith and confidence that shone upon Quint from 
the eyes of his uncouth followers, of whom he could only 
say as Paul said, “ that they have a zeal of God, but 
not according to knowledge ”— that faith, that confi- 
dence put an impediment upon his thoughts and reso- 
lutions, laid a weight upon his forehead and hands, 
although the force of their strong trust in him was 
weakened by their lowering expression of greed and a 
concealed distrust craving satisfaction. Had it not 
been for this hindrance poor Quint would probably have 
known ways and means of shaking off his believing fol- 
lowers by a dry confession of the truth about himself. 
But their faith in him caused him to remain their debtor, 
innocently guilty. 

In Ruth faith and confidence spoke to a young man 
of twenty-eight out of a sweet, lovely girl’s face, from 
the depths of a soul to which not the faintest shadow 
of doubt had penetrated. 

It was love itself that looked upon! him. 

And the Fool felt all the danger, all the evil conse- 
quences of the moment. 

This gave him strength and courage to be firm. 

What do you want?” he asked her impetuously. 
** Who gave you permission to come here? ” 

But Ruth lowered her eyes and seemed to whisper the 
words of Ruth of old: 

* Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou 
lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and 
thy God my God: where thou diest will I die, and there 
will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me.” 


312 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


She turned her eyes up to Emanuel with an expres- 
sion in them of pure, simple certainty that he could not 
possibly find any fault with her avowal. 

Emanuel had not heard those few words with which 
the Ruth of the Bible had forged her eternal crown 
shining over all times and over all peoples, those few 
words which, laid in the scales, would have outbalanced 
nine-tenths of all the words of the Bible, ay, all the 
libraries of the world. Emanuel had not heard what 
Ruth said, but he felt the force of her avowal. Grow- 
ing still paler he wrung his hands convulsively as if 
realising the futility of resistance. 

Everybody had gone to sleep. Quint’s room was ina 
remote part of the house, the approach to which was 
by many passageways and short flights of stairs. His 
head sank on his chest. He unclasped his hands and 
began to pace up and down the room, now brushing 
against the window curtains, now against the yellow 
glass closet filled with all sorts of bric-a-brac and peas- 
ant rarities. 

He knew that he had to face, not only Ruth’s flight 
from her home, but also the certainty that the world 
would lay the blame of the escapade upon him and no- 
body else. | 

“You have got us into a very bad situation,” was 
all he said. | , , 

Ruth turned to him and rejoined: 

“ How can I help it if I am not to miss my bride- 
groom?” : 

“You are all without understanding.” 

“ Teach me,” she cried, “ to have understanding.” 

“ Honour your father and mother and do not grieve 
them. Think how anxious they must be about you now. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 313 


We will be discovered, and gendarmes will take us back 
home, if nothing worse happens.” 

“The ‘Father’ will not permit it,” Ruth said. 
Quint looked at her in surprise, and she added, “ I mean 
' the Father which is in you.” 

Emanuel began to lose patience. | 

“What do you want of me? What are you looking 
for? I know nothing of the legion of angels of your 
heavenly Father. Their swords are not at my beck and 
call. JI am not the son of an earthly king, nor of a 
militant God. I am nothing but the poor son of man. 
He that follows me will have a hard way. His naked 
feet will walk upon sharp stones. The rain will drench 
him. The hail will beat upon his head. He will take 
alms whenever he gets them. Like me despised, ruined, 
he will in the end die an ignominious death.” 

While he was speaking Ruth had hastily removed her 
worn boots, her cloak and her little dark waist. Sob- 
bing wildly she threw herself on Quint’s breast. 

** Crucify me, I want to die for you.” 

Quint stroked her hair, but kept his lips from the 
narrow white parting line so near to him, from which 
her hair fell on both sides in dark, fragrant waves. His 
hands avoided the childish jerking shoulders which put 
him in mind of the quivering winged back of a youth- 
ful fallen angel, or rather a run-away angel. There 
was something lovely, intoxicating, strange in this new 
experience. 

Emanuel clenched his teeth and resisted with all the 
strength at his command, all his remarkable will-power, 
the hot wave that seethed up in his soul. He fought 
and conquered. ‘Tenderly unloosening Ruth’s arms and 
drawing her hot hands from his neck, he said a few 


314 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


gentle words to her and succeeded in somewhat calming 
her. He put on her boots, helped her thrust her bare 
arms into the sleeves of her waist, buttoned it over her 
beautiful shoulders, and carefully wrapped her in her 
cloak. 

“ Now come, Ruth. Let us go back to your poor 
parents at once.” 

The child stood there without stirring, and for a long 
while said not a word. Quint overcome with compas- 
sion put his arm about her, and turned her face up to 
his own serious, sorrowful countenance. Ruth’s face 
was swollen with tears. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


Art that moment the door of the room creaked on its 
hinges, and Bohemian Joe’s head appeared in the open- 
ing. ‘There was a sly grin on his face. He seemed to 
want to withdraw, but Quint restrained him, asking 
in an astonishingly composed voice what he wanted, 
forcing him to come in and sit down at the table, and 
encouraging him to speak — Bohemian Joe had been 
rendered speechless by the sight that met his eyes. 

Bohemian Joe had heard somebody breathing on the 
stairway. ‘Then the wooden furniture in his room 
cracked terrifyingly. The window panes and lamps 
rattled as in a storm, or as when a heavily laden waggon 
rolls over the paving of a city street, or even as in an 
earthquake. He had also heard other noises over his 
head. “If only I had one tiny little bone of a hanged 
man,” said Joe, ‘I should make you both invisible and 
should transport you, without the people seeing it, back 
to Miltzsch and back to bed.” 

Ruth seemed visibly disquieted by Bohemian Joe’s 
presence. Quint, too, was unpleasantly affected by 
Joe’s new tone, in which there was a degree of coarse 
familiarity. Nevertheless, Emanuel’s manner was by 
no means lacking in its usual friendly courtesy when he 
asked Joe to go immediately to the nearest village and 
hire a peasant’s horse and waggon to take Ruth back to 
Miltzsch. 

When the ugly little man had left, Quint insisted 
upon Ruth’s going into the baking-room and taking 

315 


316 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


some bread and butter and coffee, of which he found 
plenty still hot in the oven. After she had finished 
eating they left the house softly, unobserved by any- 
body in the mill. 


* * * * * * * * 


In the beginning of the trip they were both monosyl- 
labic. Ruth walked beside Quint, her features still 
swollen with tears, while the Fool, in great consterna- 
tion and lost in thought, intentionally refrained from 
breaking the silence. The’ little saint, who had under- 
taken her earthly-heavenly wedding flight in an impul- 
sive spirit of self-sacrifice, was completely benumbed be- 
cause she assumed that her sweet friend and heavenly 
bridegroom had rejected her love and sacrifice. 

Gradually, in the course of their wandering, which 
was the form of existence really adapted to Quint, that 
great, full sensation arose in him which undoubtedly 
had a religious character even though it was the chief 
factor that raised him time and again above the justi- 
fiable demands of his environment. Conscious life is 
itself nothing but a sensation, and if one could describe 
that sensation of Quint, one should be able to under- 
stand the real basic phenomenon in the religious life of 
the remarkable separatist. 

Life in nature as we know it, especially organic life, 
is a continuous movement through birth, death and re- 
birth. Thus Quint’s deepest experience was always the 
divine death and the divine resurrection. Of all the 
natural phenomena the sun that rose and the sun that 
set was the mightiest and profoundest symbol. As the 
sun set and rose again, so in his soul the light died down 
and was renewed. And when it arose he saw in truly 
sacred rejoicing the world, not in little flashes here and 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 317 


there, but in its entire glory, in the blissful daylight of 
the Holy Ghost. 

And as the real sun when it arises has nothing but 
the free expanse of the heavens above, with no roofs or 
huts or palaces or cathedrals to shadow it, so it was 
with the sunrise in Quint’s heart; a sensation of great- 
ness came over him almost torturing in its loftiness, 
almost threatening to burst the vessel in which it was 
confined. From the heights of that sensation he 
looked down upon the loftiest towers as upon the tiny 
work of an ant. It was so all-comprehensive that he 
seemed to be dwelling in the omniscient spirit of God, 
and it was of nothing else than this sensation that he 
thought whenever he maintained his unity with the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

With such a sensation, in which the consciousness of 
his own poor body and every other body melts and 
evaporates like snow in the sun, it is clear what the dan- 
ger must have been when he entered huts, palaces or 
cathedrals. Now, while walking with Ruth, the knowl- 
edge of the calamity she had brought upon him and 
herself was lost in thrills of greatness. 

But Quint did not forget that Ruth was walking be- 
side him. 

She was conscious that he whom she called the Sav- 
iour had taken hold of her hand long before they 
reached the village where the waggon was awaiting them, 
and held it the whole way. Later she declared it 
strengthened her ‘and comforted her as with divine 
magic and filled her with a certainty of eternal heavenly 
happiness. She also maintained that the poor Fool in 
an eestasy, encircled by a sacred aureole, spoke with 
Jesus, Moses and Elijah, forgetting that in her opin- 
ion Emanuel himself was the Saviour. 


318 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


She had cause for her error. 

After a time, while still holding her hand, Emanuel 
began to speak almost in a chant. The red of the 
dawn in the sky was growing brighter and brighter. 
He spoke of the radiant force of the star that entered 
into life with the same brilliance and the same joy as 
it sacrificed itself after the day accomplished. ‘The 
sun wanders, he said, it rests in God, but it never rests 
on its way, and certainly never in the homes of men. 
Whatever is divine wanders, he said. The Saviour 
wanders, the Son of God wanders, the Son of man wan- 
ders over the world. Everyone wanders who is born of 
the spirit, homeless, with no fixed abiding places, with- 
out wealth, without a shelter, without a wife, without a 
child, with nowhere to lay his head. And when the sun 
arose, Quint in a rapture, stuttering and stammering, 
fell to his knees — a compulsion he felt from his child- 
hood — and also drew Ruth down on her knees. This 
procedure showed that he was in his former pathologic 
condition. 'To Ruth in her exalted mood he seemed to 
be in communion with Jesus and the prophets. 

After rising to his feet his manner became composed, 
peaceful and cheerful, and did not change the whole 
way as he rode with Ruth in the peasant’s cart over 
rough wood roads, long highways, through a number 
of villages and market-towns. 

In the few last villages before Miltzsch, the people 
knew of Ruth’s and Quint’s disappearance. Search had 
been made for the girl everywhere. Consequently the 
passage of the two in a rattling cart with a coarse 
peasant driver, a thin horse and a bundle of straw 
for a seat aroused lively excitement. In the first vil- 
lage they were greeted with shouts of joy, in the next 
two or three villages the news of their approach had 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 319 


preceded them, and people had already gathered in 
numbers. Quint proposed to the peasant who was star- 
ing in amazement at the reception his vehicle was re- 
ceiving that he should make his horse go a little faster 
until they had passed the village. Then he and Ruth 
would get out and would unconspicuously walk the last 
half mile to Miltzsch across the fields. 

At that moment an open carriage drawn by two young 
fiery greys — very aristocratic — came dashing up be- 
hind them. 

In the carriage behind a liveried coachman sat Baron 
Kellwinkel. 

The greys tossing flakes of foam from their bits 
darted by Quint’s and Ruth’s sorry little cart. But 
Baron Kellwinkel, whose grey mustache had just been 
resting dreamily upon the broad collar of his fox coat, 
suddenly rose up from the back of the carriage, turned 
around, recognised Quint and pulled the coachman vio- 
lently by the sleeve. Ruth and Quint could see his 
gestures, though the carriage had already gone quite 
a distance. The coachman reined in the greys, and 
Baron Kellwinkel in his own mighty person descended to 
the road leaving his fox coat in the seat. 

The coachman turned the carriage and slowly fol- 
lowed his hastening master, who required less than a 
minute to confront Ruth and Quint, purple and wrath- 
ful. 

The words with which he acquainted Ruth of her 
parents’ alarm were, of course, by no means gentle. At 
his sharp, curt bidding she had to rise from her seat of 
straw, clamber down from the cart over the shaft and 
get into his carriage. He tolerated no resistance. 
Like a puppet she had to sit down and rise again, until 
he had almost hidden her in his fur coat — as a matter 


320 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of fact the little saint was shivering a bit from. the 
cold. 

Now he went for Quint, whom at first he had seemed 
not to notice, apparently deeming him unworthy of even 
a look. He returned to the cart, next to which the 
Fool was standing surrounded by a crowd of people. 

“You low-down scoundrel,” he cried, when still at 
some distance from him. “ You damned parasite. 
Now you’re done for. I suppose even your best 
friends will give you the cold shoulder now. You cur, 
if this were the right sort of world, you’d get it in good 
Russian style — twenty-five knouts every fifteen min- 
utes on your bare hinder! You scurvy imbecile. You 
belong in the madhouse. I’d give it to you so that all 
the humbug would be knocked out of you.” 

Emanuel was silent and Baron Kellwinkel faced 
about and walked to the carriage, but turned back again. 

* You idiot,” he began with another stream of abuse, 
“you gaol-bird, you sneaking, prowling, cowardly, 
hypocritical, parasitic, dissolute, shirking blackguard! 
Why don’t we go right to work and build the gallows 
and string up this disgraceful buffoon, this public des- 
ecrator of our Saviour? You stupid donkey, you 
jackass! You imagine — you dare to imagine, you try 
to make us believe, you brainless idiot, that you are an 
apostle, a prophet, or what not, the Saviour himself! 
You are a charlatan, that’s what you are, an anarchist! 
You belong behind lock and key!” 

Emanuel stood there, the colour of his face turned 
drab. The vociferousness of the wrathful aristocrat 
drew more and more women and children from the 
houses and workmen from the fields nearby. Now, to 
his harm, the Fool said: 

** Have I committed a sin? ” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 321 


* You'll find out,” shouted Baron Kellwinkel, ‘ you'll 
find out what you did to the family of your benefactor, 
to this silly girl here. What sneaky ways, what low- 
down lies you must have used, you lazy, good-for-noth- 
ing tramp, to get this well-bred girl to forget decency 
and morality, and slip away from her home in the night 
in the fog, and put herself so completely in the power 
of your dirty paws!” 

At these words the women and labourers assumed a 
threatening attitude toward Quint. One of the work- 
ingmen, with whom Quint on his expedition to the fields 
had occasionally philosophised a few moments, used the 
opportunity to insinuate himself in Baron Kellwinkel’s 
good graces. He stepped to the front and said: 

“Quint is an agitator. He stirs up the people and 
keeps them from working. He makes them discon- 
tented and rebellious by asking the women and children 
whether beets or the salvation of their souls is more im- 
portant.” 

As a matter of fact Quint had asked this and similar 
questions in the course of conversations with harassed 
field-labourers, and it was exactly such expressions that 
had been carried to the ears of Kellwinkel and had es- 
pecially enraged him. Now in the face of this man, who 
had seemed friendly to him, yet was insolently betraying 
him, Emanuel felt that Judas was not a dead man, but a 
living, a fearful power in human society. 

“‘ Fellows like you deserve the gallows,” bellowed the 
nobleman in redoubled wrath almost choking over 
his words. The word gallows seemed to be a signal for 
many labourers to shake their fists in Quint’s face. 

From out of this jumbled mass of horny fists Emanuel 
said in a quivering voice: 

“ Which of you convinceth me of sin? ” 


322 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The men started back and burst into wild laughter at 
this citation of the Saviour, evidence to them of the 
Fool’s peculiar folly. But their laughter was his salva- 
tion. 

“ The just man must suffer shame,” thought Quint, at 
the same time observing that Ruth had jumped out of 
the carriage and had run half-way back to him. Baron 
Kellwinkel energetically caught the girl up in both his 
arms and carried her back to the carriage struggling 
and crying. The next instant the carriage was rolling 
off at full speed. 

The peasant who had driven Quint and Ruth scolded 
at both, and said he had been done out of his fee. He 
had tried in vain to find out from Baron Kellwinkel who 
would pay him. Quint disgusted with so much ugliness 
and senselessness told him to go to Heidebrand in 
Miltzsch, from whom, he assured him, he would get his 
money ten times over. 

Then stepping firmly he strode rapidly across the 
fields, no longer followed by the superstitious mob of 
villagers. . 

Ruth Heidebrand’s disappearance — with Quint as 
they thought — naturally aroused great excitement in 
the whole neighbourhood, even in the county seat. 
Her parents in their fright made the incident widely 
known. Reports of blood and crime were circulated, and 
the Heidebrands, the Krauses, the Scheiblers, Pastor 
Beleites and his son were not the only ones that were fear- 
fully wrought up. 

Even when it turned out that Ruth was at least alive, 
the general opinion concerning Quint. was scarcely less 
severe, and found expression in the barrack-room lan- 
guage of men like Baron Kellwinkel. Emanuel re- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 323 


solved to face the situation boldly, and he fearlessly re- 
turned to his once beloved asylum. Long ago that 
transformation had taken place in him in quiet which ir- 
resistibly drove him from the still waters of peace to the 
rapid torrents of shallower, but broader, wilder streams. 
Thus, strange to say, he deemed Baron Kellwinkel’s 
rough treatment of him, despite the disgust with which 
it inspired him, as the first welcome trial at the beginning 
of anew career. He expected such trials. 

The Heidebrands sent coffee and bread and butter to 
his room, and at the end of an hour or more Mr. Heide- 
brand himself went up to see him. The father of course 
reproached him, but his manner was that of complaint 
rather than of rebuke, and was heart-rending in its bit- 
terness. His voice was sometimes choked by tears. He 
looked upon the catastrophe as partially merited punish- 
ment from heaven. And Emanuel felt a painful love for 
the good man. 

At the Gurau Lady’s request, they telegraphed the 
news of Ruth’s return to her at Berlin. 

Heidebrand asked her, “‘ Shall I keep Quint in my 
house if he returns? ? The Lady, who in certain cir- 
cumstances could be very harsh and brusque, sent back 
the laconic reply, “ Turn him out!” 

In regard to his greatest fears Heidebrand was set at 
ease by the simple candour of the Fool in Christ. He 
immediately perceived that Ruth’s flight had taken place 
without his consent and probably without his knowledge, 
and that Emanuel could not be held guilty. 

But many indignant friends kept coming to the 
gardener declaring that Quint was a criminal or a mad- 
man and ought to be summarily expelled. And though 
Heidebrand, who was reasonable in the matter, at first 


324 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


did not carry out the Lady’s order, he nevertheless real- 
ised that the poor man had somehow or other forfeited 
his right of sanctuary. 

Ruth fell sick, and the physician strictly forbade the 
girl’s seeing Quint. Otherwise he would not answer for 
the consequences. During the search for her daughter 
Mrs. Heidebrand had experienced such frightful torture 
that she had no desire to see the man that had been the 
cause of her anguish. 

So Emanuel was dismissed. 

Hans Beleites spent the whole day and night in a 
desperate frenzy of anger, alarm, Jealousy and humilia- 
tion. He did not mince matters with either Mr. or Mrs. 
Heidebrand, unceremoniously declaring his love, harping 
upon his damaged rights and intimidating his future 
parents-in-law by heaping reproaches upon them. 

In Krause’s family there were tears and disputes on 
account of Emanuel. The teacher, in opposition to 
Marie, wanted to have nothing more to do with the Fool. 
Marie took Emanuel’s part. In her defence of him she 
was not exactly just toward Ruth Heidebrand. Her 
hysteria was nothing new, she said. She had always 
known that Ruth was a silly, sentimental girl. 

None of her arguments was of help to Marie. Her 
father, thoroughly alarmed by the news of Ruth’s disap- 
pearance, firmly decided to keep away from the danger- 
ous Fool. Whether he still had any feelings for Quint, 
his family never knew. ‘The teacher’s peaceful, comfort- 
able existence was based upon the good-will of many 
friends.” After what happened he had no choice as to 
his attitude to Quint. It was not advisable, in fact, not 
feasible, to oppose public opinion. In association with 
Quint one risked the danger of being classed with him 
and rejected by society. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 325 


On Maundy Thursday, when the children in all the 
villages go in crowds from door to door with their songs 
and little mendicants’ sacks, Emanuel walked to the 
teacher’s school. When within a short distance of it, 
he saw a man leaving the house, and recognised Na- 
thaniel Schwarz, of whom it was known that several 
years before he had sued for Marie’s hand. He made a 
great détour about Quint, and disappeared in haste 
through a narrow byway. 

Emanuel was not received. The maid had just given 
Emanuel the brief message of rejection and was closing 
the door in his face, when an envelope thrown by an in- 
visible hand fell from a mansard window. When Quint 
reached the fields he opened it and read on a little card: 

* T believe in you.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


Tur gardener’s maid on opening the shutters early 
Easter Sunday morning to her great amazement saw the 
place in front of the garden gate and the road to the 
fallow field beyond the wall thronging with about two 
hundred strangers. Every Sunday patients, sometimes 
as many as forty, were wont to come to the Shepherd of 
-Miltzsch. A few to forestall the others presented them- 
selves at the very break of day. But these two hundred 
people — where could they have come from? What 
could they be wanting? The maid standing there in her 
astonishment, her arms spread, still holding the shutters 
open could not conceive. ‘The numbers increased. ‘The 
maid saw men, women and children coming across the 
field from all directions and join the waiting multitude. 

The sun had just arisen. Mrs. Heidebrand, awakened 
by the maid, looked from the window and was equally at 
a loss to explain the presence of the crowd. She saw the 
shepherd apparently no less astonished speaking to some 
of them. 

“TI do not know what has got into the people,” he 
called up. ‘ There are only a few sick persons among 
them, and these have not come to see me.” 

When the gardener awoke, which was not quite so 
early as usual that Easter Sunday, he was as much as- 
tonished as the rest. And there was nothing to be got 
out of the people themselves until a little before nine 
o’clock, when a remarkable deputation of bearded men 
appeared in the house inquiring for Emanucl Quint. 

326 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST B27 


The deputation consisted of the Scharf brothers, Bo- 
hemian Joe, Schubert, Dibiez, Schwabe, Zumpt, Krezig, 
and blacksmith Johu. They stood in the vestibule talk- 
ing and gesticulating animatedly. Their excited man- 
ner contrasted strongly with their more than humble, 
needy appearance. The maids, horror-stricken im- 
mediately ran to Heidebrand to announce the remarkable 
visitors. ‘They said men had come who certainly did 
not seem quite right in their minds. Heidebrand went 
out to see them. Their confused, insistent questions 
perturbed him and by no means enlightened him as to 
their status or intentions. Their manner was as solemn 
as it was excited, and they seemed to assume that every- 
body knew why they had come and why the gardener’s 
house belonging to the Castle of Miltzsch was besieged 
by men, women and children. The consciousness of a 
twofold importance seemed to be alive in these men so 
different from one another, yet so alike in their poverty ; 
the importance of the present moment and the impor- 
tance of their own personality. 

After the gardener rejected the idea of their being 
drunken men, he decided that they were moved by a com- 
mon delusion, which must have arisen in connexion with 
the Easter holiday and must therefore be a religious 
delusion. They acted as if they were breathless with a 
day’s race to a point from which they would witness with 
their own eyes a prodigious ultra-mundane event. 

The gardener saw that these men breathing heavily, 
speaking jerkily, with feverishly gleaming eyes were 
nothing more than the scum of humanity. Bohemian 
Joe’s face made him think for an instant they were run- 
away convicts, though to judge from their language 
they were fugitives from the county insane asylum, or 
the workhouse, or an institution for inebriates. 


328 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Bohemian Joe kept crying, ‘‘ Christ is arisen!” He 
thrust his ugly face with its piercing, pug eyes disgust- 
ingly close to the gardener’s and said, ‘* Every man in 
the world ought to know that Jesus Christ is arisen from 
the dead.” 

** Jesus, my Redeemer, liveth,’ repeated blacksmith 
John oratorically. 

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,” 
Schwabe declared, now to the gardener, now to the 
Scharfs, now to John, Schubert, Dibiez, Zumpt, and 
himself. . 

When the gardener asked them what they wanted, An- 
ton Scharf bringing his face with its wide-open eyes 
and distended nostrils close to the face of the hard- 
pressed man said three times in succession, “‘ We have 
found him whom Moses and the prophets have prophe- 
sied.”” Each time this was confirmed by the chorus al- 
most shrieking with joy, ‘‘ We have found the Messiah.” 

The gardener’s workmen were standing outside in the 
garden in front of the open door holding their sides with 
laughter. 

A phrase repeatedly heard among the other extrava- 
gant expressions of the crazy deputation was, *‘ We have 
discovered the mystery,” a password upon which they 
seemed to have agreed in order to conceal the real object 
of their coming. In truth it did express an agree- 
ment. They thought they had discovered what the ac- 
tual mystery of Emanuel Quint was. 

After Quint’s disappearance they had frequently as- 
sembled in committee. Hundreds of people on hearing 
of the appearance of the wonder-worker had come run- 
ning to the mill, and it is natural that this should have 
had the effect of a miracle upon the Valley Brethren, 
who regarded themselves as Emanuel’s apostles and the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 329 


elect. So one day in their foolishness, departing more 
and more from the sober path of reality, they unani- 
mously arrived at Quint’s mystery as if by a revelation. 
Each strengthened the other in the belief that they had 
reached the truth, that Quint beyond all doubt was the 
Messiah, that his strength, his body, his blood and his 
spirit were raised above all the words of the Bible, above 
all the truths of the biblical promises. He was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God. He had come and would establish the kingdom in 
a way that nobody had imagined, in a way that not even 
the Bible had foretold. In short, Quint’s presence had 
unchained madness itself. 

So the Valley Brethren stepped out from the mill to 
the multitude congregating in ever larger numbers and 
preached the mystery of the kingdom. They revealed 
Emanuel’s abiding place. They spoke with tongues, and 
John, the blacksmith, who may have imbibed somewhat 
too freely, distinguished himself on the Easter holiday 
by a fanatic harangue, in which he prophesied the 
final miraculous revelation of the mystery on Resurrec- 
tion Day, prophesied both a Resurrection and a Revela- 
tion of the Saviour in the gardener’s house at Miltzsch. 


*% * * * * * * * 


While the deputation in the house were still harassing 
the gardener with their incoherent talk, the two hundred 
outside burst into a tremendous chorus, the first verse 
of an Easter hymn: 


“Glory! Glory! Christ’s arisen! 
He is not where he has lain. 
Death held Him in chains and prison, 
And to-day He rose again.” 


330 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


A hymn sung by such numbers is bound to be impres- 
sive, and Mrs. Heidebrand deemed it a piece of good 
fortune that Ruth was not in the house. 

Since they had not been able to get rid of Emanuel 
off-hand, they had decided to remove the child from 
under the same roof with him and turn her mind to dif- 
ferent things. They had sent her to live with friends, 
the family of an apothecary, whose daughter was of 
the same age as Ruth and had formerly been a compan- 
ion of hers. The impressions of the morning might 
have brought on another nervous attack. 

Mrs. Heidebrand, who was as completely dismayed by 
the elemental character of the event as her husband, 
was quicker than he to realise that the cause of the nui- 
sance, the magnet that drew the mob, was her unhappy 
lodger. She regretted that she and her husband had 
merely written to Emanuel’s mother to come and fetch 
her son, instead of having acted according to the Gurau 
Lady’s instructions, and been firm and candid with the 
Fool. 

That morning which was cool, calm and sunny, 
Emanuel slept late. He was awakened by the singing 
of the hymn under his windows. The evening before 
he had decided to go his way the very next day and had 
tied up a little parcel of his belongings. He was not 
yet completely dressed when he heard the tramping of 
feet and the shouting of rough voices in the house. 
There was a knock at his door, and Heidebrand fol- 
lowed by the Valley Brethren pushed into his room. 

‘“‘' These people want to see you, Emanuel,” he said in 
a reproachful tone, his face red with displeasure. 

“ T know,” Emanuel replied coolly. 

The Valley Brethren turned dumb, and stood there 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 331 


twirling their caps in embarrassment with an expression 
of quivering devotion on their faces. 

In giving an account of the incident the gardener said 
that Quint’s demeanour and the conduct of the Valley 
Brethren at this, the first meeting between seducer and 
seduced, almost endangered his own sanity. 

Heidebrand’s brain reeled. He asked himself whether 
he had smelt of deadly nightshade, and thought that 
Satan was conjuring up before his eyes a hideous, cyn- 
ical, monstrous picture of the Resurrection of Jesus and 

His disciples, a picture delusive in its convincing veri- 
_ similitude. 

After many crises Emanuel had attained a firm, un- 
wavering will. The thing he thought he had gained, 
was, as he called it, the bold, glorious liberty of the Son 
of God to Christian deed and Christian death. 

He darted flashing eyes at his poor disciples and 
pointed to his bundle with a commanding gesture by no 
means lacking in loftiness. All of them at the same 
time pounced upon his possessions jealous of serving 
him. 

“T will go with you,” said the Fool, “ although you 
will be offended in me. I know that with you the Son 
of God can always be sure of drink, a place to lay his 
head, and a bite of bread.” 

And he left the house with them without looking 
around. 


* * * * * * * * 


The servants and garden labourers no longer laughed 
when the troop of the elect awkwardly made their way 
between them with Quint striding firmly at their head. 
The onlookers were waiting to see what would happen. 


332 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


It was noticeable that a number of hostile persons had 
gathered at the outskirts of the singing congregation of 
“ babes and sucklings,” who in their simplicity, credulous 
folly, and purity of heart were awaiting the appearance 
of the miracle by which “ the earnest expectation of the 
creature ”? would finally be converted into sheer joy. 

At this blind but resolute stepping into the unknown 
Emanuel felt the adamantine pressure of a power which 
opposed him and which he wanted to challenge. 

“Now I clearly feel that I am going to meet the 
enemy,” thought Emanuel. “I have never before felt 
the enemy breast to breast as now, never before looked 
into his eyes so clearly, though my eyes are still blind. 
My enemy is as old as the world, and like a second 
Christ, I will go forth against him and conquer.” 

It seemed to Quint that on the horizon the enemy 
towered like a mountain wall inhabited by grim giants. 
Or was it the broad, irresistible wave of a vast sea that 
was rolling against him threatening to drown him? 
How would his little light fetched from under the bushel, 
how would the little congregation of hopeful maintain 
themselves against that flood? ‘We shall be carried 
away beyond rescue,” a voice within him said. “ But 
a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall 
he not quench — ?” 

However that may be, the step had been taken and 
Emanuel did not contemplate a return. 


* * * * * * * * 


As is customary on pilgrimages, some of the pilgrims 
had brought along the sick members of their families, al- 
though a miracle of merely a general character had been 
prophesied. When the false Messiah finally appeared 
there was much pushing and jostling in their attempt to 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 333 


bring the sick close to Quint. A man was led before him 
afflicted with delirium tremens, the symptoms of which 
are so appalling to the layman. Who has not felt that 
far worse than the hell in prisons is the hell behind the 
iron gratings of the insane asylum? Of all the cases 
treated there, the drunkard’s madness is at the head of 
the scale in frightfulness. The broad muscular peasant 
was so shaken by convulsions that it took four men to 
hold him down before Quint. He had horrible visions of 
earthquakes and the destruction of the world, and ut- 
_ tered fearful shrieks. Wherever he turned chasms 
yawned at his feet and snatched him up, and lower 
abysms shooting up flames opened before his terrified 
eyes. He felt himself labouring in slime with snakes, 
lizards, and other disgusting reptiles crawling all over 
him. The man’s superhuman torments were contagious. 
The entire multitude seemed to be seized with helpless 
terror. 

Emanuel passed by without paying attention to the 
man. But the peasant cried in a voice more nearly like 
a. dog’s howl than a human sound: 

“‘ Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” 

It was an ugly sound and perhaps also ludicrous. 
Among the non-participants, whose number kept increas- 
ing, it evoked a mighty laugh. 

That day there seemed to be no pity or compassion in 
Quint. He was hard as steel in the firmness of his re- 
solve. Nevertheless, his hour seemed not yet to have 
struck. Here and there he said a few words to some of 
the people, but all of a sudden left and rapidly walked 
off to the fields at the head of his nine Valley Brethren. 

s ¥ * * * * * * 


It was a fallow field on a hilly stretch of land, where 
he was forced to take a stand by a multitude of men 


334 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


pouring in from all sides. There were not only peasants 
on their way to church but also middle-class people and 
young sons of the gentry, and even their fathers driv- 
ing in their dog-carts. The report of the mad event 
had spread far and wide. Kurt Simon was there, and 
Hans Beleites had come with the Heidebrands. Curi- 
osity or some other feeling had moved the gardener to 
follow Quint when the whole mob swept to the open 
fields. Emanuel Quint had just begun his notorious 
sermon when Pastor Beleites drove up with Baron Kell- 
winkel. : 

The great change that had taken place in Quint’s be- 
ing was noticeable in the tone of voice with which he 
called the crowd to order, in the fearless, threatening 
way in which he raised his fist and commandingly 
stamped his foot. It was still more evident in the con- - 
tent of the sermon which the Fool hurled forth in flam- 
ing words. 

“ Hypocrites,” he cried, “that strain at gnats and 
swallow camels, hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God. Hear the words of the Son of man which the 
Father hath given him to speak. The Father is with me 
who hath anointed me and sent me not to bring peace 
but a sword. Woe unto you, hypocrites! What are 
ye if not an unbelieving, lying, cheating, covetous gen- 
eration! one the robber of the other, openly or secretly 
Thieves! Adulterers! Traitors! Murderers! openly or 
secretly! I say unto you, you ministers of anti-Christ, 
I was ahungered, and ye gave me not meat! I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me not drink! I was sick and ye 
visited me not! I was in prison and ye thrust me from 
the cell in which there was a window into an unlighted 
dungeon of scorpions and serpents. You quartered 
me! you bound me to the wheel! you tore my body with 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 335 


red-hot tongs! You hung me on the gallows, beheaded 
me, bruised me, beat me, openly or secretly —” 

A wild laugh went up from the outskirts of the 
crowd, and a voice was heard to say: 

TI wish they had salted you, pickled you, Dated you, 
packed you in a keg, and expressed you to the devil in 
hell.” 

Quint answered: 

“JT know your voice. Be not amazed, you poor, 
coarse, blinded peasant, that that voice has come from 
your throat. It originates where everything originates 
that God has not purified. It proceeds from your 
mouth and makes you, not me, unclean. You know, 
and it is said and is true, that only those things which 
proceed out of the mouth defile a man. But know, not 
thou art the man that speaks here. It is the power as 
old as the world that brings darkness on earth.” 

And the Fool continued unwavering: 

“Hypocrites, openly you call me your Lord, in 
secret you nail me to the cross daily. Mountains of 
rusty nails sufficed not for your thousands of years of 
hangman’s work. Innumerable times you took me down 
from the cross, you cut me from the gallows and sold 
me, sold my decaying flesh, my crumbling bones, bit by 
bit, every splinter of my cross, every stitch of my gar- 
ments, everything, everything ten thousand times over. 
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Ghost have 
you sacrificed to Mammon. But they that bought me 
deceived themselves. They that bought me were de- 
ceived by you. Though you have nailed the true 
Saviour to the cross many a time, it is not given to you 
to remove Him from the cross.” 

Baron Kellwinkel jumped from his carriage and 
beckoned to Hans Beleites. 


336 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“ Listen, Doctor,” he said, “if that crazy fellow 
keeps on speaking in the same strain, you’ll please do 
meafavour. Take my carriage and drive quickly to the 
sheriff. It may be necessary for him to know what’s 
going on here.” 

“What are you? Think you ye are Christians? 
Then Pilate and Judas and the chief priests that ac- 
cused Him and the soldiers that mocked Him were all 
Christians. Then was it Christian to scourge Him, 
Christian to smite his cheek, Christian to blindfold Him, 
to put a fool’s sceptre in’ his hand, a fool’s crown of 
thorns on his head, and cry, ‘ Guess who smote thee, 
Christ !? ” 

‘It’s an outrage,” said Baron Kellwinkel. 

** Or have you another law than an eye for an eye and 
a tooth for a tooth? Have you not armed the people, 
covered the world with myriads of frightful instruments 
of murder? Do not your monstrous ships of iron float 
upon all the seas? And do you think that the Saviour 
will bless your cannons and hideous weapons of 
slaughter? A husbandman went out to sow seed in his 
field. Think you it was the seed of the Saviour, of the 
kingdom of God on earth? I say unto you which listen 
to me, ‘ Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
despitefully use you, and persecute you, and whosoever 
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other 
also.’ : 

«Think you ye can serve God and Mammon? Verily 
I say unto you, ye shall serve God or Mammon. Think 
you ye will do evil to your enemies, curse them that curse 
you, smite them that smite you, and yet be called chil- 
dren of God? I say unto you, whosoever tears the coat 
from off your shoulders, call him back, say to him, you 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 337 


have forgotten the cloak, and let him have your cloak 
also. Give to him that asketh you tenfold that which 
he asketh. If a thief comes and breaks into your treas- 
ure chambers, thou rich man, do not go and set a con- 
stable upon him, but leave to him that which he hath 
taken, and ask it not back. Let him steal away with 
your jewels, the adornments of your women, and your 
minted gold. For I say unto you, Lay not up for 
yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust 
doth corrupt. For what availeth it if ye gain the whole 
world and your soul suffer harm thereby? ” 

* Better still,” said Baron Kellwinkel. 

Quint’s peculiar doctrines evoked expressions of ridi- 
cule, resentment, and contempt. He noticed that the 
faces of the pious sheep that had come to witness some- 
thing miraculous were growing longer and longer. ‘The 
Valley Brethren were standing close beside him, and he 
saw disillusionment and amazement on their features, 
which a short time before had been beaming as if with 
the expectations of a heavenly manifestation, the miracle 
of the Resurrection. 

Were they not honest people? And if they were, 
and if in their faith they had followed him, what meant 
this hailstorm of abuse? 

“¢ Are we robbers, thieves, traitors, murderers, adulter- 
ers?” they thought. ‘No we are not,” they said to 
themselves. ‘‘ And we are not servants of anti-Christ 
unless he who is addressing us is the anti-Christ.” 

And since they were honest people why should thieves 
concern them? Were they a gang of thieves? When 
had they robbed him, beheaded him, bruised him, hung 
him on the gallows, openly or secretly? 

Anton Scharf turned dark-red with wrath and shame. 

“What, I and my brother, we are not Christians? 


338 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


We like Judas? Like Pilate? Like the soldiers that 
tortured Him? When did we smite him with our fists? 
And what does he mean by saying we should help thieves 
and robbers? ” 

“ Behold your heavenly Father,” the Fool continued 
raising his voice. “Is he not kind to the unthankful? 
Is he not merciful to the godless and the wicked? Does 
he not make His sun to rise on you daily, you who are 
good and evil and honest among godless men, thieves, 
traitors, murderers? ” 

“ Hold your tongue,” screamed a drunken stable boy. 
“ 7’]l throw a stone at your head.” 

A group of young men obviously bored left the crowd 
and went to the nearest pot-house singing: “O du 
liecber Augustin” and “ Lott ist tot, Lott ist tot, Jule 
liegt im Sterben.” 

But Emanuel did not heed the interruption. 

“ Oh, I know you well,” and Quint sent an angry look 
at the place where the dog-carts and the well-dressed 
people were, “ I know you well, you who sit in judgment 
upon your neighbours, you godless men! You know 
neither God the Father; nor God the Son, nor God the 
Ghost. And God the Ghost, God the Son and God the 
Father know not you. Or think you, ye who put hand- 
cuffs on the hands of the Son of God and placed Him 
behind the iron bars of a prison, who loaded with chains 
the sinners whom God pardons, who robbed of his bodily 
freedom him who refused to take the king’s weapons of 
murder in his hands; think you, I say, that the Saviour 
will bless your judgments? Have you forgotten what 
the Father said? ‘Judgment is mine.” Have you for- 
gotten that he said, ‘ Judge not, that ye be not judged. 
Condemn not, that ye be not condemned. Forgive, that 
ye be forgiven.” You have all gone out of the way, you 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 339 


are together become unprofitable, you! you! you! and 
you!” He stretched out his arms and pointed to 
several of his auditors. “ Or wilt thou say to thy 
brother, ‘ Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; 
and behold, a beam is in thine own eye.’ First cast out 
the beam out of thine own eye, I say, to you! you! you! 
and you! ”—— he again pointed to some men who turned 
away contemptuously —‘‘ and then go see if you can 
cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” 

He told them the parable of the lord who took account 
of his servants. 

One was brought to him who owed him ten thousand 
talents. ‘The servant fell down before the lord who 
was God, and the Father forgave him his debt. But 
the same servant went out and found one of his fellow- 
servants who owed him a hundred pence. And he laid 
hands on him, and took him by the throat and sat in 
judgment over him. He cast him into prison, had him 
tortured, scourged, and hung on the gallows. 

** Come hither, you wicked servants, each one of you 
whom God has forgiven his debt of ten thousand talents, 
you who daily crucify your brothers, for the sake of 
a few pence, you emperors, you kings on your thrones, 
you generals, ministers, and chief priests, you magnates 
and princes, you judges, jurymen, and policemen, you 
women who maltreat your maid-servants, you landlords 
and factory lords, come hither. Here is the judgment 
of the Son of man. Or will you say, * Let us do evil, 
that good may come.’ ‘I say unto you you have made 
your laws that sin may prevail. 

“* And whosoever invokes the law invokes not God. 
Insofar as I have been crucified, have died and been 
buried, it is sin that has tortured and killed me. Your 
sin it is, which is based upon the law. It deceived and 


340 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


killed me with that very law. Yea, sin with its sinning 
lusts has been made powerful in you by the law, and you 
are willing to offer sacrifices to death. Your mouth is 
full of curses, of the poison of the adder. Your 
tongues are loaded with hate and bitterness. Your 
hands shed blood. Why do you sow misfortune and 
anguish instead of God’s peace? 

“Or do you really think that the Saviour will bless 
your judgments, the lips of your judges who pronounce 
injustice according to dead letters, who repay evil with 
evil, hate with hate, who’ coldly, unmercifully — very 
differently from God! — deliver the sinner to the prison, 
to the axe, to the hangman’s rope, and death? Do you 
think that Jesus will bless the work of your hangmen, 
the walls of your penitentiaries? Do you think he will 
give your rulers the palm of eternal peace? Pa 

“That is the maddest farce and the wildest blasphemy 
I have ever heard,” said Baron Kellwinkel to Pastor 
Beleites. 

“ Take all the woe, all the misery, all the horrible mad- 
ness that has raged outside the law and weigh it 
against all the bloody madness that the law has perpe- 
trated. Take the curse that has raged without the law 
and weigh it against the curse of the law. I say unto 
you, the curse of sin without the law will be swallowed 
up by the curse of the law, as Jonah was swallowed up 
by the whale.” 

Emanuel Quint now denounced the churches, the 
“ houses of God,” Protestant and Catholic, calling them 
the true Golgotha of Jesus Christ, the testimony whereof 
were the images of the Cross and the display of His suf- 
ferings. His conclusion, as it were, knocked the bot- 
tom out of the patience of his hearers. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 341 


“‘ Hypocrites, each of whom thinks he confesses Jesus 
and possesses the baptism of Jesus, I say unto you, you 
neither confess Him, nor ever have confessed Him, nor 
ever will receive His baptism. He that confesseth will 
be baptised and they that have truly confessed Christ 
are baptised in His death, and they that have become 
alive in Christ have become alive in His death. If it 
were otherwise, I should know you and you should know 
me. But ye know me not and I know you not. And I 
say unto you and confess unto you, all of you near and 
far that hearken unto me, all of you that have ears to 
‘hear, that you will see me baptised with the baptism of 
which ye know not. I who was baptised by John and 
have rejected the baptism of John, I, the true anointed 
by the grace of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, who 
have arisen before your eyes to-day and stand before 
you as Christ the Saviour.” 

Emanuel ceased, and the same instant a stream of 
blood ran down the left side of his forehead over his red 
eyebrow, over his red lashes, and down his cheek. 

The Fool in Christ did not stir. 

Pastor Beleites and Baron Kellwinkel, who had not 
yet recovered their breath from the climax and conclu- 
sion of the sermon, at first did not realise what had hap- 
pened, but the next moment the explanation was thrust 
upon them. Here and there from various directions 
stones came flying at the poor Messiah. 

‘They will stone him,” said Beleites. 

“ Tt speaks well for the religious spirit of the people,” 
said Baron Kellwinkel. 

The space over the heads of the mob was now dark- 
ened by a cloud of stones the size of pigeon’s eggs. 

“ In what century are we living? ” demanded a hectic, 


342 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


lanky student of theology, the son of a pastor, who had 
been meditatively watching the whole procedure with his 
spectacled eyes. 

The Fool remained immobile amid the hailstorm 
of stones. .A woman rushed up to him and covered him 
with her body. With the exception of the Valley Breth- 
ren nobody knew it was Therese Katzmarek. Her 
heroic deed served only to increase the number of mis- 
siles. But now Baron Kellwinkel suddenly made his way 
up to Quint, fearlessly took his stand next to him, shook 
his cane at the mob, and shouted: 

“Shame on you. Remember, to-day is Easter Sun- 
day. Are you Turks or Hottentots? I give you my 
word, this blasphemer here ”— he touched Quint’s shoul- 
der —*‘ will not escape justice.” 

Baron Kellwinkel’s military voice and bearing clarified 
the atmosphere as if by magic. ‘There was no need for 
him to add, “If any of you brutes hits even a little toe 
of mine with a stone he’ll get a year in the workhouse.” 

“ Now you’ve got your just deserts,” he said turning 
to Quint. To stop the flow of blood Therese Katzmarek 
had wound her head-cloth like a gay turban around the 
Fool’s head. ‘ Now you’ve got what you deserve, and 
you'll think twice before you preach your perverse doc- 
trines to our good, healthy peasants and misuse the name 
of our blessed Saviour. Take it as merited punishment, 
though stoning is out of fashion. I should act very 
differently toward you if I did not see from your con- 
clusion — may God forgive you for it — that you are 
not to be held responsible for your acts.” 

Quint’s startling conclusion had had an electrical ef- 
fect upon Pastor Beleites and most of the educated 
listeners, an impression almost instantly obliterated by 


the sight of flowing blood and the hail of stones. They 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 343 


all felt that a terrible catastrophe was impending, which 
must be averted. Though the first part of his speech 
smacked of disguised Socialism or Anarchism — prop- 
erty is robbery, therefore robbery is property — the 
conclusion left so little doubt as to Emanuel’s insanity 
that the more intelligent listeners instinctively wished to 
prevent a crime against the poor Fool, and a number of 
gentry and middle-class people, young and old, gathered 
about him. Among them were Pastor Beleites, Hans 
Beleites, Kurt Simon, a young man of the name of Ben- 
jamin Glaser, the son of a large landed proprietor in 
the neighbourhood, Heidebrand and even Nathaniel 
Schwarz. 

The nine Valley Brethren, strange to say, had made 
their escape. 


CHAPTER XX 


Ir is impossible to make the inevitable course of a man’s 
destiny comprehensible in all its details. Every man 
from his birth to his death is a unique phenomenon with 
no exact counterpart in the past or in the future. The 
observer understands things only within the limits of his 
own peculiar nature. In Emanuel’s life, it must be 
borne in mind, profound, passionate imagination took 
the place of education. He imagined Jesus and his 
life into himself, as it were. 

Emanuel did not cultivate theology. He was hungry 
and he ate his spiritual bread from hand to mouth. He 
was thirsty and he drank the water of life at a source 
which he deemed to be the source of the water of life. 

Now he felt as if he would never again thirst. When 
he cried that he had. rejected John’s baptism and had 
arisen that day as the true anointed by the grace of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, he was somewhat carried 
away by the excitement of the moment, by the con- 
sciousness that it was resurrection day and by the sight 
of the wonder-seeking multitude. Yet it was the inner 
Christ, the Christ he had imagined within him, who was 
now also his outward ruler and who as never before be- 
came completely identified with him. 

This absolute realisation may have resulted from a 
condition of momentary self-abandon, it may have been 
connected with the fact that Emanuel Quint the despised, 
for the first time raised himself up to his full height. 
It was a symbolic expression of a newly awakened con- 


344 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST BAD 


sciousness of self. Yet a more offensive challenge, a 
greater insult to the feeling of pious Christians is incon- 
ceivable. 

When the hail of stones ceased, Quint went to a spring 
at the edge of the fields and washed the blood from his 
face and hands amid a cross-fire of warning, rebuking, 
and reviling. 'Then he walked away holding himself 
erect and paying no heed to the epithets, “ Fool of 
Miltzsch! ” “ Crazy Messiah!” “ Old Harry!” and the 
like. With a few curt words he shook off everybody, 
even Therese Katzmarek. 

Care was taken that he should not be molested. In 
fact the people seemed to be somewhat ashamed of them- 
selves. Those who had come to see a miracle hastily dis- 
persed, and the others, who had almost been ready to 
lynch him, made themselves small and slunk off. In ad- 
dition, the gentry with the help of their coachmen and 
other domestics who happened to be present, organised 
a sort of police squad, which swept away the ragtag 
and. bobtail. 

All the gentry including Baron Kellwinkel agreed it 
was best to let Quint go. Their reason was the same 
as Pastor Schimmelmann’s when after Quint’s first ser- 
mon he told the sheriff merely to set Quint free with a 
warning. 

“ As it is,” they said, “the Christian Church in our 
days has a hard enough struggle to maintain itself 
against godlessness. If the story gets about, we alone 
will have to suffer for it. At whose door will the enemies 
of the Saviour lay the blame of the scandal if not at 
the door of the Church? ” 


* * * * * * * * 


In the meantime Emanuel Quint reached the edge of a 
forest of pines, firs, and a few bare beeches. Here and 


346 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


there groups of birches edged the path covered with 
needles and damp leaves. The earth steamed. When 
the Easter sun shone between the clouds, it fell through 
the tops of the trees upon the fog, which rolled like a 
wave of light through the woods. The crows cawed, 
the finches sang, and, strange to say, nobody in the 
world could have felt purer, freer and happier than 
Emanuel Quint at that moment. 

Lovely angels’ voices were singing to him songs of 
touching simplicity. A sweet boyish smile was playing 
about the lips of the new redeemer. ‘The bruises made 
by the stones stood out on his forehead in great welts. 
But he felt they were the burning marks of divine sancti- 
fication. Gradually he himself began to sing in a low 
voice. The angels seemed to be playing on their harps, 
and the solemn, eternal breath of divinity to be rustling 
gently through the fir branches. 


“List what Isaiah hath to tell, 
Which in a vision him befell. 
God sat enthroned in a high seat, 
His train the temple filled complete. 
Two Seraphim stood by His side, 
Each one with six wings was supplied. 
With twain they hid their faces bright, 
With twain they hid their feet from sight, 
And with the other twain they flew, 
And each the other called unto: 
Holy is God, the Lord of hosts! 
Holy is God, the Lord of hosts! 
Holy is God, the Lord of hosts! 
His glory all the world fills. 
The door posts tremble with their cries. 
And smoke and mist to ceiling rise.” 


While Emanuel was humming this Lutheran sanctus 
— good, artless verses with a fascinating, mischievous 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST BAT 


twinkle in them — he suddenly heard the branches snap 
behind him. Was it one of his persecutors following 
him? Nevertheless, even at the sound of quick, heavy 
steps behind him he would not abandon his blissful de- 
votion until he heard a deep, well-known voice close at 
his side. 

“1 followed you,” said Nathaniel Schwarz, “ because 
I owed it to you.” Emanuel was silent, and he con- 
tinued, “ And even if I did not owe it to you, I owe it to 
God who will call me to account for your soul on Judg- 
ment Day.” 

Nathaniel renewed his attempt, this time with passion- 
ate insistence, to lead Quint back on the right way. 
Never before had he experienced such horror as when 
the Fool declared outright he was Jesus Christ the 
Saviour. His baptismal child seemed to be surrounded 
by the crackling flames of Satanic fireworks. With such 
tangible, visible evidence of the lengths Quint had 
reached, every shred of his being felt a call to make 
one last attempt at salvation. 

“‘T will not leave you to-day,” said Nathaniel, “ be- 
fore I have made certain that you are utterly repentant 
of your horrible blasphemy. I consider that you are 
misled, not insane. At any rate insanity is the work of 
the devil.” 

Silence ensued. The Fool would not answer. Na- 
thaniel’s zeal increased. 

He held up to Quint how he, Nathaniel Schwarz, 
could no longer inspire the old confidence in the congre- 
gations he visited on account of Quint and his baptism 
of him, the fame of which had spread. The teacher in 
whose school he had met Quint for the first time was 
distinctly distant toward him. Several times, probably 
at the instigation of certain pastors, he had been sum- 


348 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


moned to a hearing by the sheriff, and the head of the 
Moravian Brethren had warned him to be cautious in 
his conduct. Since it was he who recommended Emanuel 
to the Gurau Lady, he was also responsible to her, and, 
as a matter of fact, to the whole district, for the ter- 
rible incident that had occurred because of Quint. 
Why, Baron Kellwinkel, in driving past, had shouted at 
him from his carriage: 

‘“‘ Nobody is to blame for this but you, Brother Na- 
thaniel.” 

The apostle of home missions preached, raved, wept 
before Quint. 

‘“ Formerly,” he said, “ the pastor of a little congre- 
gation even gave up his pulpit to me that I might pro- 
claim the Word to the believers. Now almost all the 
teachers have been instructed not to place even the small- 
est schoolroom at my disposal for preaching God and 
the Saviour. You have made me impossible with the 
Gurau Lady, and she used to give me large sums for 
spreading the knowledge of the kingdom. You have 
closed to me the doors of the Heidebrands and of Krause, 
my old friend, who was always so good to me, because 
you repaid their hospitality by turning the heads of 
their daughters, well bred girls of good, solid Christian 
families.” 

Brother Nathaniel’s distress failed to strike a sympa- 
thetic chord in Emanuel. He could not at that moment 
be made to see the gravity of the situation. A man 
sometimes finds relief from the storms raging within him 
in gay superficiality. The happy, boyish smile still 
played about his lips and nostrils. Suddenly, still 
smiling, he laid his arm about Nathaniel’s shoulder. 

“ Let us not resist evil, Brother Nathaniel,” he said. 

“Tf you had not walked this awful way of blas- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 349 


phemy,” said Brother Nathaniel, “I could have gone 
through fire for you.” 

“1 know nothing of blasphemy, Brother Nathaniel.” 

“ Have you forgotten,” asked the Brother, “ why they 
just now stoned you? ” 

*‘ Because I completely confessed myself as Him that 
is in me.” 

** Then tell me, so that I can be absolutely convinced, 
has your impenitence gone beyond recall? Tell me face 
to face, me alone, are you not Emanuel Quint, the son 
of the poor carpenter of Giersdorf? Tell me who you 
are.” 

“ First of all I am he that speaks to you,” Emanuel 
replied, and he could not be got to speak any further 
of his Messiah delusion. 

A dog-cart passed them. In it were Kurt Simon and 
Benjamin Glaser. The young men greeted Quint very 
respectfully, and Quint lightly waved his hand in ac- 
knowledgment. 

‘“‘’'The peace of God be with us all, amen!” he then 
said to Nathaniel. ‘‘ He who professes to love God and 
peace must have no fear of men. What is fear of men 
if not fear of death and love of life in this world? To 
live in this world is to live in strife and fight one’s neigh- 
bour eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say unto you, 
we should not fight our neighbours, but love them as our- 
selves. ‘The Son of man has been placed in a world of 
enemies. But he will not therefore become a breaker of 
the peace. Rather will he unfasten the bolts of death 
and step through the portals of hell. The Son of man 
has conquered death. What is the world that I should 
have to make my way in it step by step through murder, 
treachery and deceit? I love my sisters and brethren 
more than the world. I am not of this world and will 


350 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


not be of it, unless God becomes of it. But God is 
strange in this world, so the enemy, the enemy, the 
enemy, and the enemy alone must be at home here. 

‘‘ But because the enemy is so powerful among my 
sisters and brethren, they are powerless in the divine. 
Yea, even the Son of God, who descended as the Son of 
man, is powerless. The Son of the Father, the 
anointed, the messenger of peace must still walk in the 
world alone, concealed, despised, persecuted, cursed and 
finally given over to the hangman. For behold, above 
all the works of men that the enemy prompts them to 
create stands the hangman. Above the palaces of the 
kings, on the roofs of the court-houses, on the towers 
of the churches stands the hangman. For what would 
the higher powers be without punishment, prison and 
hangmen? 

“This world the enemy has made. But the kingdom 
of which I am a citizen, the Son of man, the Son of God, 
the anointed, God has made. But the mystery of the 
kingdom is peace. I say unto you, Brother Nathaniel, 
nothing else than the peace of God is the treasure hid- 
den in the field, the light under the bushel, the pearl of 
the merchantman. JI am the man that sold all and went 
to purchase that treasure. And now I possess it, 
Brother Nathaniel. 

“ But know, the world is still the bushel that hides the 
light. Who is the brother, the sister, the neighbour of 
the Son of man if not man? But his neighbours still 
persecute the Son of man not knowing what they do. 
Look about and see to whom they raise altars. 'To whom 
do they daily, hourly offer bloody hecatombs of their 
children, wives and brethren? It is the enemy that re- 
wards his whining servants by flogging them day and 
night with glowing rods. Out of his mouth proceed 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 351 


hate, envy, wrath and greed. Slimy sensuality is his 
pillow, a mountain of rattling chains his throne. His 
jaws are adorned with tusks. His look is murder, his 
breath oppression, his fists fear and horror. Every 
sound that issues from his throat is a tenfold curse, 
for which my brothers and sisters thank him. 

** You cannot serve God and the enemy. You cannot 
serve God and Mammon. Therefore you serve the 
enemy who is Mammon, not God. But I who am the 
Son of man elevated to the Son of God, serve not the 
enemy, not Mammon, but God alone. But the Son of 
God must suffer much, and be delivered to his perse- 
cutors. For, behold, I go the strait way, the hidden 
way, the lonely way, the way shunned by all. I enter 
at the strait gate that leads to the kingdom of God; 
but you go the broad, the easy way over all the broad 
places that the enemy has levelled. You enter at all 
the thousand gates that the enemy has opened. Verily, 
you are the servants of the enemy and therefore the 
servants of sin. You are chained in his prison cells in- 
asmuch as the world is nothing but a vast prison of the 
enemy. Mine, Nathaniel, is the way and the goal of 
the Son of God and the glorious liberty of the children 
of God.” 

They had reached a little lodge in the woods where 
they were received by Kurt Simon and Benjamin Glaser, 
standing at the door. Emanuel’s attitude and words had 
made a bewildering impression upon the wandering 
preacher. He clearly felt how little, on closer contact 
with him, he could resist Emanuel’s spell. Those 
strange arguments and conclusions, like a dangerous 
spider, wove a web of metal threads about his brow, 
which threatened to throttle his power of independent 
thought. Benjamin Glaser, whose appearance revealed 


352 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the Jew, stepped up to Quint blushing delicately in al- 
most maidenly shyness, and asked whether Emanuel still 
remembered him. It was not easy to forget that fine 
narrow face, girlish in its beauty, with its round chin, 
large eyes and delicate skin. Emanuel recalled having 
seen him once at his father’s house, where he had been 
invited along with Krause. Emboldened by Emanuel’s 
recollection of him, Benjamin ventured to invite him to 
dinner in the lodge. Quint consented and shook hands 
with Benjamin and Kurt. | 

Of course Quint’s statement that he was Christ had 
not remained without effect upon Kurt Simon. In him, 
as in everybody else, it aroused terror, as well as pity 
and concern for Quint. At the same time he was visi- 
bly mastered by that strange, benumbing power which 
he had felt on his first walk with Nathaniel Schwarz 
and Quint nearly a year before, from which he had 
saved himself by flight. After the sermon in the field 
Kurt Simon had happened to meet Benjamin Glaser and 
found him profoundly moved by Quint’s words, full of 
pity for the Fool’s martyrdom, and enraged at the mob’s 
rough treatment of him. Both of the young men had 
been carried away and raised to a high pitch of excite- 
ment by the unusual event, the cause of which they did 
not know. They had had a brief but violent discussion 
with some other young people, especially Hans Beleites. 
Despite Emanuel’s folly they felt a passion for him and 
his genius, as they said. And when they saw him leave 
the field, they followed him in the dog-cart by the road, 
their hearts beating fast with enthusiasm. But now 
as they stood face to face with him, the consciousness 
that they were dealing with a man in whose mind there 
was at least one morbid spot, embarrassed them. With- 
out intending to do so they exchanged a furtive glance 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 358 


of secret understanding with the bulky, bearded man 
in a slouch hat and pilot-cloth overcoat accompanying 
Quint. 

But their fear that in the meantime Quint’s insanity 
may have been aggravated was dissipated by the Fool’s 
unconstrained cheerfulness. He lured the pigeons to 
him, patted several Dachshunds and a lean, wire-haired 
setter, who, emboldened by the new guest’s goodness, 
stood up on his hind legs and put his forepaws on 
Emanuel’s chest, yawning and wagging his tail. 

Kurt and Benjamin admired Quint because he cour- 
ageously ventured to take a stand in opposition to all the 
world, a world on the whole opposed to their own na- 
tures. Their souls were filled with a good, Shelley-like, 
misdirected enthusiasm — misdirected because it con- 
sisted of a passion for social justice, intellectual prog- 
ress and liberty, and a hatred of oppression and the 
tyranny of church, school and state. 

Benjamin induced Nathaniel Schwarz to remain, and 
soon they were all sitting together in a long low room 
on the second floor, the woods rustling outside its two 
windows. The forest and lodge were part of Salo Glas- 
er’s estate, and on occasion he and his son could obtain 
food and lodging with the forester. The midday sun 
shone through the front window on a table spread with 
a clean white cloth, on which the comfortable looking 
forester had placed the steaming soup tureen. Accord- 
ing to the old patriarchal custom he himself also went 
down into the wine cellar reserved for the Glasers, 
opened the bottles and filled the glasses, a procedure 
which he invested with some humour. He had a maid 
to help him, but her way seldom suited the old man’s 
taste. 

*¢ What do you intend to do now? Where do you in- 


354 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


tend to go?” Glaser asked Emanuel as innocently as 
possible. Emanuel tranquilly stirrmg his soup with his 
spoon said he was going to Breslau. Kurt had already 
heard of Quint’s intention, though he did not know what 
his object was in going there. The fact was that 
Emanuel had received a letter from the Hassenpflug 
brothers recommending him to friends in the city. 

It is curious how a new generation spins the web of 
its intellectual oneness over the earth. Young men who 
have not yet found a special vocation in life feel a 
general calling to rejuvenate the rotten old world, feel 
that theirs ‘is the prodigious duty to bring about a 
comprehensive reformation and revolution in society, 
which has been going wrong for thousands and thou- 
sands of years until the moment of their own appear- 
ance on earth. 

‘What are you going to do in Breslau, Emanuel? ” 
asked Brother Nathaniel, drops of soup on his beard. 
From the paleness of his face it was clearly to be seen 
that Quint’s every new step, every new intention was 
cause of anxiety to him. 

The maid and the forester entered, and the answer 
which they were all awaiting with expectancy had to be 
deferred. 

‘‘ There,” said the forester to Benjamin, “ hasn’t my 
old woman cooked a dish fit for a king? ” 

It was a steaming platter of boiled trout, which the 
forester who was master in the art of fishing, had caught 
in a stream in the forest. 

From now on innocent, somewhat pensive gaiety pre- 
vailed at the meal. The only serious discussion arose 
when Emanuel refused to eat a pigeon potpie, because, 
he said, it went against him to eat a bird that brought 
Noah the first olive branch of peace and was the symbol 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 355 


of the Holy Ghost, although he would not prohibit any- 
one else from eating it. 

After the apples and cheese had been served, Ben- 
jamin began to try to rid himself of all those seeking, 
questioning little spirits that disquieted his soul, which 
was in a state of ferment and eager for knowledge. 

Tell me, Mr. Quint,” he said, * what should we do 
to be perfect in your sense? ” 

** Do God’s works? ” 

** How can I, a man,” asked Benjamin, ‘‘ do God’s 
works? ” 

** By becoming as perfect as God.” 

** Perfect as God? That would be nothing less than 
to become God.” 

** And nothing less,”’ replied Quint, “ is the calling of 
the Son of man.” 

A peculiarly tense, mysterious mood took hold of the 
little company, that feeling which overtakes people when 
they expect that a man touched by the hand of fate 
will disclose his mania. A mania like Quint’s which has 
something absolutely inconceivable about it, also pos- 
sesses majestic inviolability. It is unerring and won- 
derful. For which reason it has always made the 
strongest impression upon childlike minds and races. 
The Indians of North America are not the only ones 
that have worshipped insanity as divine. 

** In truth that was the vocation of the Son of man,” 
said Nathaniel Schwarz, turning to Benjamin, “of the 
Son of man who died for us on the cross, and caused 
the blind to see, cleansed lepers and by a word of his 
mouth revived Lazarus who had been lying dead in his 
grave for three days. It was Jesus who awakened to 
life the daughter of Jairus and the youth of Nain by the 
powerful breath of his mouth, who walked with dry 


356 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


feet upon the waters of the sea, and before the eyes of 
all was carried alive up to his heavenly Father. It was 
Jesus who was as perfect as God and asked his disciples 
whether they could do his works.” 

‘¢ What does Jesus do to a man by raising him from 
death in the body?” rejoined Emanuel, meditatively 
tapping the table with his teaspoon. ‘He bestows 
a second death upon him. Whosoever wishes to walk 
upon the waters knows not how the spirit of the Lord 
hovers above and in the waters, in the heavens and above 
the heavens. If you knew what I know, you would 
have no need of faith. But since it is not given you 
to know, I say unto you, he who is blind in the body, 
can see more and know more than you. And though 
you can see in the body, you may have your eyes blind- 
folded in the spirit. Blessed are they who see not bodily 
things with their bodily eyes, and who believe, though 
they do not know.” 

‘“‘ What is it,”? asked Benjamin, “ that in your opinion 
we should believe, Mr. Quint? ” 

‘Have I ever tried to win a soul that God has not 
tried to win?’ was Emanuel’s answer. “ Verily if you 
have faith as a grain of mustard seed you can remove 
mountains. But if you have the knowledge that I have, 
there is no need to say to a mountain, Remove hence 
to yonder place.” 

“What are the works that we should do?” Kurt 
Simon interjected. 

“Keep the commandments,” said Quint. 

Kurt and Benjamin were disappointed in Quint’s an- 
swer and said they knew many people who never sinned 
against the commandments and yet were anything but 
perfect. 

“Well, then I know not what to say to you who 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 357 


thirst and hunger for perfection except, Follow me.” 

Nathaniel Schwarz, thoroughly indignant and greatly 
concerned for the young men’s souls, wanted to rush 
into the fray, but curbed himself. He made many se- 
eret signs to Kurt and Benjamin in an effort to nullify 
the impression the Fool made upon them. 

“If we were really to follow you, Emanuel, what 
would be the first thing for us to do? ” 

Emanuel asked for a Bible, opened it and pointed 
with his finger to the first verse in the Acts of the 
Apostles. ‘‘ The former treatise have I made, O The- 
ophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” 
He went on: “It avails naught to teach what one does 
not do. ‘Therefore shall ye do what I teach as I will 
do what I have taught. Have you forgotten that it is 
written, Ye shall know them by their fruits? He that 
hears what I say and does not accordingly, has built 
his house on shifting sands. But he that does accord- 
ingly builds on stone, he builds on the foundation and 
stone which the builders rejected. And his building 
money is the treasure hidden in the field. He that will 
follow me, let him do my works.” 

The forester who was standing behind Quint began 
to make faces at Benjamin. He scratched his head, 
pursed his lips, and opened his eyes wide to indicate 
that the thing was beginning to look serious. He was 
aware of the eccentricities of his young master who had 
no mother or brothers or sisters, and was allowed com- 
plete liberty by his affectionate, admiring father. Ben- 
jamin seemed not to notice the forester’s gestures. 
Crossing his long, pale, highly veined hands over his 
knees he said: 

** What you are teaching, it seems to me, is selfless- 


358 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ness. You think that self-seeking is the mother of 
all earthly evil. Others maintain the very reverse, that 
self-seeking is the mother of progress. At present Ger- 
many is making great advances in all fields as the re- 
sult of a bloody war, and war is always self-seeking. 
Prosperity is increasing. The country is growing rich. 
Our merchants rank with the greatest merchants in 
the world. In fact, the whole world belongs to the 
merchant. ‘The merchant has established commerce. 
Through the exchange of goods the world has attained 
a tremendous unity never before known. Now could a 
merchant exist without property, without scrupulousness 
in regard to property? Would not the entire indus- 
trial life of our days break down if there were not 
scrupulousness in regard to property, or if we should 
allow theft, murder and fraud to go unpunished? ” 

Quint said: 

“There was a rich man exalted high above all rich 
men, which had a steward; and the same was accused 
unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he said 
unto him, Give an account of thy stewardship. And 
the steward replied, I went to one of thy debtors to 
whom I loaned thine earthly possessions, ten thousand 
pounds and more. He could not return the loan. I 
forgave him his debt. Another owed thee a hundred 
measures of oil. I tore his bill. But the Lord com- 
mended the unjust steward.— He that hath the under- 
standing, let him understand,” Quint concluded. 


* * * * * * * * 


For some time the dogs outside had been barking, and 
now men’s voices sounded in front of the house. The 
little company heard the tread of many coarsely shod 
feet on the brick paving of the entry. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 359 


“* What can that be?” exclaimed the forester, and 
immediately went down stairs to see. Everybody in the 
little company listened. Emanuel, a moment ago speak- 
ing freely without constraint, now trembled and turned 
pale. 

According to the reports of Benjamin Glaser and 
Kurt Simon what now followed resembled a raid. 
Panting, uttering abrupt exclamations, tramping up 
the steps, which scarcely seemed able to support them, 
the balustrade creaking under the grasp of horny fists, 
a gang of men came storming up, and Nathaniel 
Schwarz and the young men hastily jumped from 
their chairs, Nathaniel upsetting his. They all 
thought it was a raging mob who had tracked Emanuel 
and intended to complete the lynching they had be- 
gun. 

Emanuel said, * Don’t be afraid,’ because he real- 
ised that though the men were his pursuers, they were 
not pursuers in the same sense as were those who had 
wanted to stone him. Though he remained seated and 
was outwardly calm, there was a look of horror in his 
eyes. The door opened and a compact mass of dishev- 
elled heads, emaciated faces swollen with running, thrust 
themselves in. Was it a word of command or was it a 
look of the Fool’s that held them at the threshold as in 
a magic spell and bade them not to cross? : 

Emanuel was sitting opposite the door. The in- 
truders looked him straight in the face and he looked 
them straight in the face. The Fool of course knew 
who they were, and knew that his fate for weal or woe 
was bound to them, the Valley Brethren. He knew it, 
and his senses left him. His head fell on the table in a 
faint. 


* * % * * * * * 


360 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Only seven of the Valley Brethren had remained to- 
gether and followed the Fool. 

Quint’s speech, its unexpected effect upon the crowd, 
and most of all the stoning at the end, from which some 
of the Brethren standing closest to Quint had also suf- 
fered, had robbed them of their presence of mind. 
With the instinct of the fox latent in every man they 
scattered, each trying to lose himself in the crowd. And 
each answered to his conscience alone for the number 
of times he denied Quint when charged by someone in 
the crowd with being connected with the blasphemer. 

Trembling with terror the scattered little flock had 
one by one gathered in a remote brick-yard, where no 
work was being done because it was Sunday. Even 
before they had sent for Quint at the gardener’s, the 
same lime-pit, where the crows swarmed, had served 
as a meeting place for them. The first to find their 
way there were Bohemian Joe and the Scharf brothers, 
still in the grip of terror. They felt as if a hard blow 
had suddenly awakened them from a long dream back 
to reality. Bohemian Joe had fared worst, his ugliness 
having a peculiar fascination for the tormenting spirit 
in small boys. A gang of them had thrown stones at 
him, and called him dog, Satan, devil, Old Nick, Lucifer, 
and the like. Nevertheless, he seemed to have himself 
under perfect control, though he would hear nothing 
more of Quint. His remarks about him suddenly bris- 
tled with maliciousness and anger evidently long sup- 
pressed. He irritated the Scharf brothers with his 
acrid criticism, until they went for him furiously, and 
thereby regained their lost poise. Even after Schubert, 
heated by running yet pale with fear, and later black- 
smith John, still speechless from the incident, had joined 
them at the brick-yard, Bohemian Joe continued to vil- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 361 


ify him. He never had believed in him, he said, and 
always had known that he was a wind-bag and a cheat. 
Worst of all was his vulgar suspicion of Quint based 
upon Ruth Heidebrand’s presence in Quint’s room. 
Weaver Zumpt, who turned up with his now thoroughly 
sobered wife, had to suffer the severest charges from 
her. She wept, she screamed, she gesticulated wildly, 
she clamoured to go back home. He would let his chil- 
dren starve, his loom go to pieces, their bit of field lie 
neglected. 'The cow was gone. There was no manure, 
no seeds. One goat was all they had left. She at- 
tacked miller Straube and his secret practices in a voice 
breaking with frenzy. She justly accused the Scharf 
of being the prime movers of the whole cursed business. 

“You stupid fools,” she cried, ‘you have been 
cheated, and the miller has filled his pockets.” 

What the woman said in her desperation was clearly 
true. A goodly portion of what the others at a great 
sacrifice had scraped together for the common treasury 
had found its way into the sly miller’s purse. 

When blacksmith John recovered his lost tongue, his 
first words were, “ I’ll kill Straube.” 

The battle raged a long time. All of them suc- 
cumbed to doubt and timorousness, as if they had met 
a decisive defeat. But suddenly Schwabe felt a re- 
newed impulse to confess his faith. With the strength 
of conviction, which made a tremendous impression upon 
all, even upon Bohemian Joe, the little hunch-back 
stepped to the front with raised hands and said: 

“Strike me dead, but I believe in him, I believe in 
him!” 

This declaration stopped the panic. Unexpectedly 
to one another the men showed they were ready to give 
ear to the arguments of the zealous tailor. The 


362 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Scharfs especially seemed to have been relieved of a 
great burden. In a little while the men began to accuse 
one another of cowardice, even treachery. 

“Why did we run away?” said blacksmith John. 
“For no other reason than because we are cowardly 
and good for nothing.” 

It was in vain that Bohemian Joe with his scofing 
interjections and Zumpt’s wife with her complaints tried 
to stem the changed current of opinion. The woman 
was especially indignant at Schwabe’s testimony. 

‘¢It was you and nobody ‘else,” she screamed at her 
brother, pale and wasted by his fanaticism and night 
vigils, “it was you who saddled those Scharfs on me 
and got me entangled in this nasty affair with that cheat 
Quint.” 

‘“ Hold your tongue, woman; don’t blaspheme,” her 
brother shouted. ‘ Don’t endanger your poor soul.” 

“‘ You’re so stupid, stupider than a cow!” the woman 
screamed. “ And you are not only stupid, you are 
crazy.” 

“Verily,” cried blacksmith John, “ it is the folly of 
the Lord, the folly of the Saviour, the folly of the 
cross, and the folly of the kingdom of God.” 

“¢ Just you come to my house once again, blacksmith 
John,” the woman snapped, “ and hold your silly, crack- 
brained prayer-meetings. You’ll get dishes and pots 
and pans at your head, and I’ll tell the sheriff on you.” 

‘¢ At Quint’s avowal that he was Jesus a shiver went 
through my body as if an icy wind had all of a sudden 
struck me,” declared Dibiez. Growing more heated as 
he spoke, he asked whether none of the Brethren had 
seen the light dart and flash about Emanuel’s head 
when he pronounced the awful words. 

Thus, in the twinkling of an eye each one regained his 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 363 


own self-importance. Their souls again succumbed to 
their delusion, which had become a life element of theirs, 
like some narcotic. ‘They were again stirred by the 
same wild emotions as formerly. Rigid stupefaction 
melted into a broad, raging torrent, on which they glided 
to the Eden of eternal bliss with no thought of rapids, 
waterfalls, or hidden rocks. 

The Scharf brothers felt a love for Quint so touch- 
ing, so strong as to be worthy of a better cause, and 
their love flared up anew. They beat their breasts be- 
cause they had so shamefully fled, and flatly declared 
they would either be accepted again in Quint’s graces 
or would eat husks all their lives. Thus the old narrow 
delusion that had dominated these men now attained 
even stronger mastery over them. Bohemian Joe alone 
remained stiff-necked. Krezig, the rag-picker, pale 
with rage, broke his long silence by suddenly springing 
upon Bohemian Joe with clenched fists, shouting: 

“JT tell you, Joe, you are lying. If it were as you 
say, do you think it would all have gone so simply? He 
came to our houses. He persuaded us, he enticed us, 
he pretended to be a wonder-worker, he misled you ”— 
addressing the Scharf brothers —‘ he would not leave 
you in peace until you sold everything you owned. He 
did not lie, I say. If he did, then woe! woe!” He 
made a gesture that left no doubt as to his intentions 
of revenge in case he actually had been deceived. 

Therese Katzmarek now made her appearance, her 
eyes swollen and staring. The girl fearlessly lectured 
the whole company for their faint-heartedness, and a 
performance of hers, both before and after her lecture, 
was even more calculated than her words to trouble their 
consciences, already uneasy. Freshly painted bricks 
were lying out to dry on long shelves. The crazy girl 


364 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


ran up and down the shelves stepping in almost the same 
places and making a sharp turn at each end. She kept 
her staring eyes fixed upon the ground, and at every 
three or four steps she cried: 

“We are cursed, cursed, cursed!” 

The seven men in due form cast Bohemian ib oe from 
out of their midst, and contrite and penitent began their 
search for Quint. 


CHAPTER XXI 


Ir is difficult to say why the master of these seven 
disciples fell into a faint at their appearance. It may 
have been the result of great conflicting emotions and 
over-exhaustion. Emanuel’s swoon lasted almost a quar- 
ter of an hour. Before Kurt and Benjamin had 
grasped the situation, the newcomers had thrown them- 
selves on their knees about Emanuel’s chair, groaning 
and weeping and kissing his hands and feet. Then 
they noticed that he was unconscious and picked him 
up from the table as easily as a child, and awesomely 
carried him to a long flowered old sofa against the 
narrow wall at the end of the room. In their con- 
sternation they were like a crazed mother who tries to 
snatch the child of her heart from the inexorable hands 
of death. 

Benjamin Glaser rubbed Emanuel’s still blood-bespat- 
tered temples with cologne water, and the forester’s 
wife and the maid applied cold compresses to his breast. 
When Fmanuel awoke, his spirit still seemed to be far 
away. His eyes were turned upward, and his face 
shone with profound unearthly bliss. So lovely was 
his expression of happiness and the childlike smile 
about his lips, that all the people surrounding him, 
down to the maid, were deeply moved. 

Finally Emanuel’s soul returned to the sunny room 
in the lodge. He looked with a smile from one to 
the other, looked at the apples on the table, at the coffee 
cups, at the stag-horns on the wall, and at the inno- 


365 


366 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


cent, gaily coloured pictures of hunting scenes, listened 
as if he had never before heard it to the endless trills 
of a warbler in one of the down-stairs rooms, and then 
silently held out both hands to each of the Brethren 
with infinite lovingkindness in a way quite new to 
them. 

‘‘Do you know, well-beloved of my soul ”— he had 
never before used such caressing words in addressing 
them —“ do you know where I have been in these hun- 
dred thousand years that I have been away from you? ” 
They shook their heads and he was silent a long while. 
“I was in the first heaven, deep, deep. I was in the 
second heaven still deeper. I speak words, but what I 
experienced there in the depths by the grace of the 
Father words cannot express.” 

Outside in the hall the forester’s wife said to her 
husband: 

“When a man speaks like that he is soon going to 
die. Just before my father and grandfather died, God 
showed them paradise, too. When that happens to 
anyone — when anyone is honoured with a foretaste of 
eternal bliss — his last hour has come.” 

Emanuel raised himself into a sitting posture, and 
with his long, freckled hands, which were not meant 
for hard work and which hard work had never spoiled, 
tenderly stroked the shaggy heads first of Anton and 
Martin Scharf, then of blacksmith John and Schwabe, 
and the rest. They all began to blubber helplessly like 
children. 

It may be said that the bond uniting these men 
had not actually been cemented until that day, and it 
seemed as if the sources of love between them had never 
before been opened. 

Quint jumped up from the sofa. He said his mind 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 367 


had never experienced rest so deep and glorious; a 
remark which made the forester say to his wife that 
the good eating and drinking the Fool had just done 
may have been the eause of his trip to heaven. 

Quint beckoned to the Brethren, shook hands with 
Benjamin and Kurt, and was about to leave, when Na- 
thaniel Schwarz, who had been looking at him long 
with burning eyes, suddenly drew the Fool to him and 
locked him in both his arms. 

“I do not understand you,” he said, “ but God will 
not permit a soul like yours, gone astray, yet without 
guile, to be destroyed in its error.” With that he 
kissed Quint, snatched up his hat, and fled. 

It was growing dark. Soon after the departure of 
Nathaniel Schwarz, Benjamin Glaser and Kurt Simon 
were left alone with each other. Both had the impres- 
sion that after the intrusion of the troop of peasants 
Quint no longer had eyes for anyone else. Though 
a rumour had reached their ears of a circle of disciples 
that had formed about Quint, they had believed it to 
be idle talk, since the master had never made mention 
of them even to Kurt. 

It is not usual to hear people of a lowly station 
in life speak of anything but their occupations. A 
blacksmith, a tailor, a tradesman, especially in predom- 
inatingly Protestant countries, will seldom betray his 
inner life, which he keeps jealously secret and reveals 
only in a few sarcastic words. All the more surprising 
and exotic was the impression made by those soft- 
hearted enthusiasts with coarse frames and hard work- 
men’s fists, especially the muscular blacksmith who 
carried his coat slung over his shoulder, and whose bare 
arms and breast showing through his open shirt dis- 
played blue tattoo marks. 


368 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The thing that struck the two young men was the 
mixture of brutality and almost mawkish sentimental- 
ity. They sat in the lodge a long time exchanging 
their views of the incident and discussing it with the 
forester whenever he entered. They fully realised what 
a riddlesome farce was being enacted. They themselves 
were only partially attracted. The conclusion of the 
entire experience was rather repulsive to them. One 
thing was certain: it was a convulsive outburst, a de- 
lusion of the disinherited, and in Quint there was a 
tendency to martyrdom to which the two young men 
were also inclined. That is why the attractive force 
of the impenetrable reformer, who seemed in turn ridic- 
ulous and dignified, contemptible and admirable, com- 
mon and divine, still continued to exert an influence 
upon them, and caused them to cross the Fool’s way in 
life several times again. 


% * * * * * * * 


On leaving the lodge Quint and his disciples began 
that long wandering which became the most memorable 
event of his life, if, indeed, any part of his career can 
be considered memorable. He told the impatient citi- 
zens of the millennium-to-come, who had forced his fate 
upon him, that it was his hope never more to be sep- 
arated from them until the day on which that would 
happen which he foresaw. As they walked, he stroked 
and caressed them each in turn or held their hands. 

In a short while the moon arose. It was a mild, 
exquisitely pure, calm, clear night. He besought his 
followers from now on to let him walk about a stone’s 
throw ahead. They obeyed. Whenever he stood still, 
his disciples stood still. They took childlike satisfac- 
tion and joy in blind obedience to him. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 369 


They approached the castle of Miltzsch where the 
lights were shining through the high windows of the 
library and dining-room — the Gurau Lady was visit- 
ing the castle— upon the trees of the park. The 
Lady’s former protégé and Fool in Christ, Emanuel 
Quint, passed unnoticed through the solitary walks of 
the park along the peaceful lake in which he had been 
wont to bathe. His companions followed him in silence. 
He stood still, and they saw one swan and then a sec- 
ond and a third, gleaming white, float from the darker 
end into the light of the moon up to their master. 
Quint fed them, and beckoned to the Brethren and whis- 
pered: | 

‘These know not that I am outlawed. But the Son 
of man has always been despised by his brothers and 
sisters and persecuted by his neighbours. He is still 
despised, enslaved, and outlawed.” 

Fearlessly he walked with his disciples past the castle, 
where there was the sound of many voices, through a 
gate in the wall into the garden, where a long straight 
path, gleaming in the moonlight, led past manured beds 
and rose bushes and currant bushes packed in straw. 
His disciples whispering anxiously and stepping softly 
saw Emanuel stand still again and look up to a gabled 
window heavily overgrown with ivy. It was not the 
side of the house where his own room had been, but 
the other side where Ruth Heidebrand’s little bedroom 
lay. The disciples heard their master sigh. 

A dog barked and jumped from the doorway into 
the light of the moon, stood still sniffing, and the next 
instant, in a few long bounds, was on Quint. It was 
an old, half-blind poodle neglected by all, for a long 
time Quint’s special friend and faithful companion. 
The greeting on the side of the poodle. assumed. the 


370 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


usual extravagant canine form, and it was no easy 
matter to get rid of him at the exit from the garden. 
For a*long while they still heard the dog’s mournful 
whining behind the iron gate. 

Emanuel led his followers around the yard where 
the unchained watch-dogs on the other side of the wall 
roved around like wolves. He now took the road lead- 
ing across the level fields to Gronsdorf, and entered 
the churchyard by a wide breach in the wall. Here 
Quint remained about half an hour without saying a 
word, sunk in profound, meditation, while the owl 
hooted and the moonlight gleamed upon the closely set, 
sunken gravestones. On leaving the churchyard he 
said: 

“There are no graves except they that walk, speak, 
and act.” 

Next Emanuel went to the little yard of the Grons- 
dorf school, which in summer was almost completely 
overshadowed by a nut tree. The house seemed to be 
sunk in sleep. Quint sat himself on the stone coping 
of the spring, and rose to go when the castle clock in 
the park nearby finished striking twelve. 

“I am looking on all this for the last time,” said 
Quint as if to excuse himself when they were again 
walking on the highway. 

From now on they proceeded rapidly in silence, Quint 
a few feet ahead. His followers did not dare to ask 
what was his goal. When they had passed several vil- 
lages, Emanuel twice stood still in the middle of the 
road and seemed not to notice that his companions 
came up to him and were troubled. Martin Scharf had 
the impression that Quint was listening for something 
in the silence of the night. He took heart and asked 
his master what was disquieting him. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 371 


‘The call, the call!” was the answer given in a 
mysterious tone. 


* a * * * * * * 


The moon grew dim. The east was flushed with the 
first faint red of returning daylight when the little 
company of poor fools entered a small market town 
situated in a dip between hills. Emanuel beckoned 
first to Martin, then to Anton Scharf, and said to 
Martin: 

“‘T have a request to make. I should like to see my 
brother Gustav once again. Go and bring him to me. 
I shall be in Breslau at the Sign of the Green ‘Tree. 
Bring the boy to me there.” 

His desire was a command. The weaver in a state 
of heavy stupefaction had no thought of anything 
but blind obedience. No matter that he was weary 
and fatigued, no matter that his task, in view of old 
Quint’s character, was difficult, no matter that the com- 
mission was an unusual one, he prepared to execute it 
immediately, handing over the common purse to his 
brother and keeping only a little change for himself. 
When he had taken leave Quint seated himself on the 
railing of a bridge with his face turned toward the 
village wrapped as in the silence of death. 

“Do you see that church?” He pointed to a tall 
chapel at the edge of the town, which to judge by its 
architecture and the crucifix nearby was a Catholic 
house of worship. ‘ And do you see that little house 
close to the church? It has only one story and an 
attic with six windows in front. You will see me go 
into that house and I shall probably remain half an 
hour or more. But if I should remain a day, go to 
the nearest inn and wait for me.” 


3712 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


While he spoke, the little bell of the church began 
to toll for early mass. Naturally the whole affair 
seemed very mysterious to Quint’s poor followers. 

While living with the gardener Quint had received 
certain ugly letters from his stepfather and had also 
exchanged letters with his mother; which indicated that 
there was some foundation to old Quint’s coarse insin- 
uations. The gardener’s family knew that one day a 
cringing man, who called himself his stepfather, had 
come to see Emanuel. Since he left the place proba- 
bly with empty hands, he was no longer so humble and 
cringing, but insolent and indignant. Soon after, 
Emanuel received postal cards with obscene allusions, 
and a letter with an insulting inscription. The letter 
troubled Quint ; but nobody, not even Mrs. Heidebrand, 
in whom Quint sometimes reposed confidence, ever 
learned its contents. 

At her son’s insistence Emanuel’s mother in her last 
clumsy letter had mentioned the name of a market 
town and a Catholic priest, both known to Quint. He 
recalled as a child having gone with his mother to the 
priest’s house and having taken him two basketsful of 
strawberries, for which he was rewarded with a pair of 
boots, a suit and a cap. He could no more than sur- 
mise the relation between that man and his mother and 
himself, since something prevented his mother and even 
his inconsiderate stepfather from revealing the whole 
naked truth. 

When the priest returned from mass, the Fool in 
Christ carried out his intentions and went to the rec- 
tory. His followers saw him enter into conversation 
with the maid, who with a furtive look of distrust, closed 
the heavy door behind Quint, and turned the key in the 
lock. : 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 3738 


The former Valley Brethren shivering in the dawn 
seated themselves on the wall at the head of a flight 
of about a hundred steps which led up to the chapel. 
A few little old women who had remained in church a 
while after mass slowly descended the stairs hawking 
and coughing. The Brethren saw that the light was 
turned on in several rooms of the rectory and saw 
the shadows of the portly priest and Emanuel Quint al- 
ternately cross the drawn white shades. The little mar- 
ket town in the dip between the hills still lay abandoned. 
The morning star was shining in its full glory. 
During that long wandering Quint’s disciples had car- 
ried on a whispered, fragmentary conversation. Their 
opinions and conjectures since the day of the valley 
mill had undergone no essential change, nor were they 
any less extravagant. For all that Quint had said to 
them of a kingdom of heaven and for all his attempts 
to wean them from the coarse material satisfaction in 
a final Judgment Day, in a hell for the godless, and 
a millennium of revelry and carousal for the elect, when 
they would be lords on earth — for all that, this con- 
ception was as strong in them as ever. And as they 
now sat passing the time in talk, they doubted less than 
ever that Quint, who had publicly proclaimed himself 
the Saviour, was the secret king of the New Jerusalem 
and they themselves the first partakers of the millennium. 

After a time they saw Quint and the priest leave the 
house and come towards them. The priest was a stately 
man of about sixty, clad in the customary long black 
frock. He looked firmly at Quint’s following, though 
he was not so calm perhaps as he wanted to appear. 
According to an old custom Schwabe arose and said, 
“Praised be the Lord, Jesus Christ!’ to which the 
priest responded, “ Forever and ever, amen!” and with 


374 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


apparent composure took a snuff box from his pocket 
and held it out to Emanuel, who declined. 

“Who are these people? ” he asked taking a pinch. 

“They that labour and are heavy laden,” replied 
Quint. 

The priest, who, it was now noticeable, was secretly 
afraid of the Fool, turned quickly and gave him a 
searching, sidelong look. Then as if to turn the conver- 
sation he pointed to the landscape with a gesture of 
benediction, while his housekeeper in astonishment 
peered curiously from the open kitchen window. ‘The 
cocks began to crow on all sides. 

“From here,” said the priest, “you can see the 
blessed Silesian meadows to the Zopt and the Streitberg, 
in clear weather even to the Schneekoppe.” 

“Jn a prison near those farthest mountains I for 
the first time became one in the body and the spirit 
with Jesus Christ.” 

“im, hm!” said the priest, “hm, hm, hm!” After 
ascending a few of the hundred steps leading to the 
church he asked: ‘ Where will you go after you 
leave here, my son?” 

Emanuel gave a hesitating, inaccurate reply. 

“1 walk in a twofold walking. Do you believe that 
when I walk in the body it is thither where each one 
must walk after birth in the flesh, to Golgotha? Gol- 
gotha means the place of skulls. But I do not walk 
like the lamb blindfold to slaughter. I walk with a 
joyous heart, my eyes open, of my own free will.” 

“Why is it, my son, that you have such gloomy 
thoughts of death? Do you want to relieve your heart 
or your conscience? Although you were not educated 
in our religion, if you want to confess, come up, come 
to the church with me.” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 375 


Quint continued with his own thoughts. 

“My soul is light, my heart is full of rejoicing, 
because the world and death have been conquered in me 
by the Father. Yea, I have conquered the world.” 
Again the priest cast a sidelong glance at Quint. “ The 
Son of man in so far as he walks in the spirit 
is nothing less than a child, at home everywhere in 
his Father’s house, everywhere sheltered in the kingdom 
of his King and Lord, everywhere strange in this 
world.” 

All this was heard by the Valley Brethren who slowly 
followed the two men up the steps. 

“If you were to follow my advice, since you seem to 
have no inclination for physical work, we might find 
a place for you somewhere in the church. Perhaps 
all you needed for your mental development was a clearly 
defined, fruitful field of activity.” 

The priest, whose remark was not wholly unjusti- 
fied, seemed to be both estranged and attracted, also 
somewhat troubled by Quint. He reproached himself 
for having omitted in the past to do certain things 
which he may have been in duty bound to do, and which 
possibly might have redounded to his own good. What 
this man in slouched hat, blue shirt open at the throat, 
wide jacket, and wide trousers of velveteen, needed was 
in all probability nothing but the work of the careful 
gardener. 

The latchet of one of Quint’s boots had come undone. 
To the priest’s vast astonishment, as soon as Quint 
noticed it, all seven of his companions jostling one 
another out of the way, passionately fought for. the 
honour of tying the grotesque man’s shoe string. 

Quint stood still as if accustomed to such services 


376 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


and began to speak again continuing with his own 
thoughts. 

“Tam a king. I am the lord of the world who 
has conquered the world. For I and the Father, I and 
the King, I and the Lord are one. He that hath the 
understanding let him understand.” 

“Who is the king and lord of whom you speak?” 
asked the priest, who again seemed to see in his visitor 
nothing but a poor escaped lunatic. 

‘‘'The Lord is the spirit,” said Emanuel briefly. — 

Walking slowly they reached the open church door 
and entered the sacred place, which was still dark 
except for the scanty illumination of a few candles in 
iron holders and the eternal lamp, which hung over the 
high altar like a drop of blood. Tailor Schwabe crossed 
himself. Over the altar and the altar picture, which 
represented the birth of Bethlehem, was the dove of 
the Holy Ghost fluttering in a golden aureole. And 
there was Moses—or was it God the Father? —a 
white baroque statue in a sitting posture wearing a 
gilded chiton and holding the world’s sceptre in its 
hand. Everywhere out of the obscurity shone the fig- 
ure of the Son of God, as a shepherd, holding the lamb 
on his left arm and with his right hand clasping the 
crook with the streamer marked with the cross, or more 
than life-size nailed to the cross, or in numerous smaller 
images nailed to crucifixes of marble, wood or metal. 
The altars, as usual, had the tawdry decoration of lace- 
edged cloths, paper flowers, vases, little pictures, and 
candelabra. In a special niche was the imitation grave 
of a saint. On an altar not far from the niche was 
a metal reliquary said to contain the bone of some 
priest of a thousand years ago. On the high altar 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 377 


gleamed a ciborium decorated with varicoloured glass 
bits resembling precious stones. 

All these things were observed by the priest’s strange 
morning callers. Later, those morning hours seemed 
to all, with the exception of Quint, to be something of 
which they were in doubt whether they had really ex- 
perienced it, or whether it was the creation of excited 
nerves, or a dream, or a story. 

Suddenly Quint said: 

“ God is a spirit. Ye shall make you no idols nor 
graven images.” 

“ Be still, my son,” said the priest displeased. ‘‘ Do 
not forget that you are in a church.” 

“Ts one not to bear testimony to God in a church? ” 
asked Quint. 

“ Above all you must be modest, humble, and rever- 
ential in a church.” 

“Do you think,” rejoined Quint, “that what has 
been erected over your shame and a cross is really a 
church, a house of God? God sits not enthroned either 
upon corpses or skulls. If you who call yourselves 
children of God have nailed God to the cross, then take 
him down.” 

“ Do you not know that Jesus was taken down from 
the cross, was buried, that he arose from the dead and 
ascended to heaven? ” 

“No,” said Quint. “If at least you had crucified 
the old Adam in you, had put him and the cross on 
which he hung in a house, and had burned that house to 
the ground.” 

‘‘ What do you mean by that? ” exclaimed the priest. 
*¢T don’t understand you.” 

“ Unless the torches are thrown into your torture- 


378 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


chambers of God so that they are destroyed from the 
face of the earth and the place whereon they stood is 
no longer recognisable, you will crucify God daily.” 

“My son,” said the priest in a half whisper, “ such 
thoughts are not merely foolish, they are criminal.” 

“ But the time must come,” the Fool in Christ con- 
tinued severely, “ when God will be worshipped not on 
this or that hill, on this or that mountain, in this or that 
house, in this or that church, or in this or that cathedral, 
but only in the spirit and in truth.” 

With these words came the sound of heavy blows, 
one after the other. In the dark the priest and Quint’s 
companions did not immediately discern what was hap- 
pening. They heard a vase break to pieces on the 
floor, the clatter of a metal candlestick dropping on 
the stone flagging, the shivering to bits of china and 
glass. The Fool’s personal delusion had broken out 
into a paroxysm of madness. With his thick shep- 
herd’s staff he was knocking down all the holy objects 
on the altars. 

“Man, get thee hence!” screamed the priest, real- 
ising at last that it was the Fool’s doing, and rushing 
up to him tried to pin down his arms. “A curse on 
you, you abominable desecrator.” 

“TJ am Christ!’’ shouted Emanuel, all the arches and 
niches echoing to his voice. “I say unto you ”— with 
a powerful blow hé knocked down the cross on the high 
altar —“ this is no house of prayer, it is a den of 
murderers.” 

Now the priest and even his disciples seized the raving 
enthusiast and image-breaker and silently wrestled with 
him in the dark of the echoing church. Finally the 
desecrator seemed to be satisfied. 

** Get out of here! Never show yourself again! Get 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 379 


out! You are possessed of an evil demon. God pun- 
ishes me through you. Get out! I command you to 
get out!” : 

There was no opposing that strong, commanding 
voice, and Quint said: 

** Come! ” 

He strode from the church breathing heavily, ac- 
companied by his followers. The sun had just risen. 
They stepped into the dazzling light flooding the earth, 
and Quint stooped and brushed the dust from his shoes. 

“Get away from here,” the priest shouted again 
from out of the dark pit of the church. But the man 
who had been cast out stretched his arms toward the 
glorious day-star and with a loud cry walked to meet 
it, followed by his poor companions. 

When the priest, pale and trembling, carefully locked 
the church door, he saw his morning callers already at 
a distance walking onward through the fields. It was 
Quint’s salvation that for some obscure reason the clever 
priest never said a word about his sacrilegious act. 


CHAPTER XXII 


For several hours Emanuel Quint pushed forward 
steadily without stopping or looking to the right or 
left, so swiftly that his companions had difficulty in 
following. Without food or sleep for nearly twenty- 
four hours, they had to struggle against hunger and 
exhaustion. On meeting a miller’s cart they got a loaf 
of bread from him, cut it into large slices, and ate as 
they walked. 

But the master refused to take anything to eat. 
Bent solely upon reaching his goal with the utmost 
speed, he felt neither hunger nor weariness. AS a 
water bird for months accustomed to a peaceful lake 
suddenly begins to career when the wind blows under 
its wings, so Quint ran on and on without cease until 
the chimneys and church towers of Breslau appeared 
on the distant horizon. 'Then he made halt, and they 
rested. 


* * * * * * * * 


The sky was no longer cloudless. The master and 
his disciples seated themselves near a low railway em- 
bankment at the edge of a damp meadow completely 
enclosed by alders and willows. From time to time 
they heard the clank of a heavy wire which ran a long 
distance from the flagman’s hut to the railway gate and 
served to open or close off a road-crossing. ‘The many 
old alders, willows, and elms about a stone’s throw from 
the edge of the meadow, and the incessant noise of reed 

380 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 381 


birds indicated the proximity of a pond. It seemed to 
be a region abounding in wild game. The deer strolled 
into the open meadow browsing tranquilly, wild ducks 
quacked, and pheasants slipped in and out among the 
greening bushes. 

Quint sat with his back leaning against a boundary 
stone. His disciples seated themselves in a circle 
around him, and despite the worn expression of their 
faces, looked intently at him, apparently expecting a 
weighty declaration. 

And the declaration came. 

What he said seemed extremely significant, but his 
disciples were absolutely unable to comprehend it. His 
first remarks apparently referred to the early morning 
incident with the priest. 

“ We have lived together,” he said, “ almost thirty 
years, and yet we were not born unto each other. When 
we were finally born unto each other, then that very 
day, that very morning, that very instant we died unto 
each other for all eternity.” 

Quint admonished his disciples henceforth not to 
marvel at what he did or allowed to be done. He had 
chosen them, he said, that they might bear testimony to 
his conduct unto the very last hour of his life, ay, 
if possible, unto his very last breath. He now told his 
followers for the first time, and thereafter repeatedly, 
that he was on the eve of being subjected to great 
sufferings and torments. He pointed to the towers on 
the horizon as to the battlefield to which he was ad- 
vancing. 

“Mine enemies, the children of the world, await me. 
The Son of man must ever be betrayed into the hands 
of man. Believe not that this time they will exalt the 
Son of man, who chose God alone for his Father, 


382 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


otherwise than on the gallows. Some day they will 
exalt the Son of man otherwise, but not until the last 
resurrection. Then even the blind will see Him.” 

Emanuel spoke not in sadness, but in ill-concealed 
ecstasy. 

A mighty noise interrupted him. It was an express 
train thundering by, depressing the rails under its iron 
wheels and sending up the dust and the dry leaves of 
the past autumn in a wild eddy. Both the master and 
the disciples turned around, and at that moment every- 
thing except the monstrous, noisy miracle of civilisa- 
tion seemed to have been forgotten. When Quint, 
whose eyes opened wide in astonishment, forcibly com- 
posed himself and proceeded with his speech, his dis- 
ciples were still unable to take their minds from the 
train, and made signs and whispered to one another 
about the passengers they had seen eating in the din- 
ing-car and the men and women at the windows who 
had not even deigned to notice the group of poor 
tramps bivouacking in the open field. 

Quint continued: 

“ T did not do right to resort to violence in the house 
of men of violence. Or do you think that a priest ”— 
he used the word for the first time —“‘is not a man 
of violence? Every priest is a man of violence. All 
of them that falsely call themselves ministers of God, 
from the least to the highest, would this very day like 
to be lords of heaven and earth, lords not only of men 
but even of God.” 

Quint jumped up as if the speeding of the train had 
counselled haste. There was no longer anything in 
his manner of that apparently dispassionate, meditative 
repose which formerly characterised him, but an impa- 
tient militancy. As he walked he said: 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 383 


“J lay a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence in 
the world, so that the children of the world should break 
the wheels of their waggons and machines, ay, their own 
feet and foreheads. ‘The drivers shall stumble and no 
less the kings.” Several times as he strode on, he re- 
peated, “‘ I am ready.” 

His disciples could not make much of what he said. 
They were filled with the ever-rising fever of their 
imagination. In their weariness they saw heavenly 
mirages of future refreshment. The exertions of their 
restless wandering led them to speak again and again of 
that asylum no longer remote, they thought, in which 
they would find the end of all their suffermgs. They 
were well aware of the change that had taken place in 
their master, and how they were hastening on to some- 
thing decisive. Quint’s words, which he seemed to ad- 
dress not so much to them as to hostile powers, present 
though invisible, filled them with vague fears of an 
obscure fate. And their own firm resolve to follow 
him frightened them. 

“Where did you leave Bohemian Joe?” Quint asked 
all of a sudden. 

They looked at one another in confusion without 
daring to answer. 

“ Don’t be afraid,” said Quint who had probably un- 
derstood that Joe and his disciples had not separated 
amicably and that their devotion in their own eyes was 
a conscious sacrifice. ‘ Don’t be afraid, for you shall 
not have to suffer from the world’s hate like myself, 
who testify against it, who shall everywhere bear tes- 
timony, as I have already begun to do, that the works 
of the world are evil and iniquitous.” 


* % * * * % * * 


384 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


At seven o’clock in the evening Quint and his men 
reached the little inn of the Green Tree. The land- 
lady, whose husband was a butcher, gave the master a 
room to himself in the attic, overlooking the muddy, 
rapid Oder. ‘The other men were housed together in 
a compartment in the loft. Still chewing their supper 
and almost falling asleep as they chewed, they all went 
to bed, and did not wake up for nearly sixteen hours, 
at about noon of the following day. 

Quint sent Dibiez with a few lines to Hedwig Krause, 
who had come to Breslau a month before to take a po- 
sition in a city hospital recently erected on the other 
side of the Oder. Dibiez with: his experience of the 
world was the only one fitted to be sent on an errand 
in the din and mazes of a large city. Fortunately he 
found Hedwig at the beginning of her free time, and 
within an hour she was back with him at the Green 
Tree in Quint’s attic chamber. 

Quint remarked that the city had made a new person 
of the girl, that she radiated a spiritual freshness and 
elasticity and energy very different from the somewhat 
dragging, discontented air he had observed in her in 
the country. 

Hedwig, for her part, also saw a new person in Quint. 
His manner had assumed masculine vigour, firmness, and 
cheerfulness. She found that the illusion she cherished 
of him in his absence was immediately strengthened 
by his presence. 

Without ado she seated herself on Quint’s military 
cot. Blushing in her evident pleasure at seeing him 
again she asked him for news of home, and told him 
of her own experiences in the city. At one point she 
seemed to hesitate to tell Quint something about him- 
self. But he encouraged her, and she handed him a 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 385 


newspaper from her bag containing an account of his 
unfortunate sermon in the field, which all the papers in 
Breslau had noticed. 

“ Religious Insanity. On Easter Sunday a man was 
arraigned near Miltzsch who wanted to hold a sort of 
religious meeting in the open fields. The neighbour- 
hood of Miltzsch is still a seat of orthodoxy. The 
crazy man who thinks he is Christ has been making 
himself a nuisance for a long time in various places of 
the province. It is said that a certain aristocratic 
lady, who is most liberal in expending her vast fortune 
upon country churches, took a liking to the eccentric 
saint and so encouraged him in his crazy notions. It 
is gratifying to learn that the people did not permit 
themselves to be humbugged, and gave him the recep- 
tion he deserved. It shows that the masses in Germany 
are fortunately more intelligent than in America and 
England, the homes of religious hypocrisy, and of 
hysterical women, young and old.” 

Quint smiled but turned pale, and handing the paper 
back to Hedwig, said: 

‘“*T have freed myself of all fear of men. If I were 
to say that I was not Christ, the Son of God,” he 
added simply, “I should have to abandon my Father, 
I should have to deny myself and Christ and God.” 

Sister Hedwig had given little credence to the report, 
and now that the very worst statement in it was con- 
firmed she was not a little alarmed, though she shud- 
dered with a certain mystic satisfaction at Quint’s 
words. 

She noticed that Emanuel had a slight cough, and 
that there were drops of blood in the handkerchief he 
held to his mouth. The next day she brought with 
her a young assistant physician, a friend of: hers, a 


386 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


powerfully built, blue-eyed, blond Teuton from the 
Pomeranian coast. He gave Quint a patient, detailed 
examination, from which he could not extract anything 
definite concerning his psychic condition, because Quint 
was reticent in his answers to all questions not pertain- 
ing to his physical condition. However, Dr. Hiilse- 
busch, when he met Hedwig in the hospital a few hours 
later, told her that Quint was a degenerate. 

‘Well, suppose he is a degenerate. Where would 
we all be if we listened to the diagnoses you physicians 
make of us? At any rate you are an atheist and don’t 
understand a thing about religion.” 

Dr. Hiilsebusch did not deny the charge. But even 
if he did lack a correct understanding of the religious 
element in Quint’s life, he said, yet as a man of demo- 
cratic spirit he did not lack interest in its social and 
human side, not to mention his interest in Quint from a 
medical point of view. When he asked Hedwig what 
Emanuel’s trade was, she was somewhat embarrassed. 
Feeling it was impossible to make Dr. Hiilsebusch un- 
derstand that Emanuel with his exclusive sense for 
God and the divine was nevertheless no idler, she did 
not like to admit that Emanuel had never worked. 

Dr. Hiilsebusch said that Quint was tubercular and 
needed plenty of wholesome food and a healthful occu- 
pation. 

* * * % * * * * 


About four or five days after Quint’s arrival at 
the Green Tree the good city of Breslau was one day 
set a-flutter by an unusual incident. Between half- 
past three and four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon a 
man, apparently a workman from the country, sud- 
denly appeared among the throngs of promenaders on 


the Liebigs-Héhe. He climbed to the top of a high 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 387 


flight of stairs and made gestures to the stream of 
dressed-up gentlemen and ladies to indicate that he 
wanted to address them. A Sunday afternoon, even if 
an early spring sun is shining brightly, is not always 
free from ennui. So smiling a little the people grew 
comparatively quiet and prepared to listen. There 
upon the peasant workman shouted three times: 

**T say unto you, Jesus Christ has arisen!” 

Then he ran quickly down the steps and disappeared 
in the crowd, which responded with a loud burst of 
laughter and a hail of witticisms. No one looked for 
the crazy man, and the people soon turned their atten- 
tion to other things. 

The incident would scarcely have found its way into 
the columns of the newspapers if the same thing had 
not happened in several places at precisely the same 
time. It could not have been the same man, for descrip- 
tions did not tally, and the places were very far apart. 

Since it all passed off so quickly, the police had 
neither the cause nor the chance to interfere. When 
the reports began to come in to the police station and 
newspaper Offices, the affair seemed curious, but it was 
neither sufficiently authenticated nor dangerous. So 
by Wednesday it was forgotten, although the papers 
had notices of it on Monday evening and Tuesday 
morning. 

The newspaper reports aroused Dr. Hiilsebusch’s sus- 
picions and he said to Hedwig in the hospital corridor: 

“It’s a pretty serious matter. I wonder whether we 
can’t prevent greater mischief by talking reason to 
your friend and protégé.” 

Hedwig blushed and did not deny that the remark- 
able performance had been arranged by Quint and exe- 
cuted by his companions. It was Quint’s intention, she 


388 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


said, to shake the people out of their indifference at any 
cost. 

“Since your patron saint has been here, you your- 
self look as sick as if you had been keeping night watch 
and fasting for weeks, like a Saint Hedwig, a Saint 
Agnes or a Saint Therese.” And he warned the girl 
against allowing herself to be bef ogged by “ that man’s — 
pathological mentality.” 

Hedwig merely shrugged her shoulders and walked 
away without replying. 

Every day since Emanuel had been at the Green Tree 
she used her free hours to visit him. A short time be- 
fore speaking to Dr. Hiilsebusch, she had asked EKman- 
uel why he adopted such strange measures. With 
a grim sort of sob in his throat and pounding his 
clenched fists on the table Emanuel replied, using the 
words of the Bible as if they were his own: 

“TJ tell you, if these should hold their peace, the 
stones would immediately cry out.” 

After Sunday’s event strange things began to hap- 
pen at the Green Tree. The people round about learned 
of the presence of a man credited with healing power, 
and Quint’s companions, though he denied ever having 
performed a miracle, spread his reputation as a, wonder- 
worker, partly from conviction, partly from a desire 
to be important. Emanuel felt profound sympathy 
for the sick as if the pain of another were his own. 
Even in this period of his life he was unable to remain 
indifferent and apathetic to a man’s sufferings. Never- 
theless, from the very beginning of his stay at the 
Green Tree he refused to treat sick people, which did 
not prevent them from coming and bribing the servants 
to let them see Quint. Thus through Quint the imi. 
gained patronage. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


Arter Anton Scharf made his announcement on the 
city-hall steps, he brought to the inn a boy of eighteen, 
the son of a city official. Dominik was a handsome 
fellow, just shooting up to a great height, with the 
down appearing on his upper lip and chin. He had 
dark melancholy eyes and a tender brownish skin. His 
shoes were worn, his sleeves and trousers were too short, 
his shirt and collar were soiled, and he wore no neck- 
tie. ‘There was an expression of painful idealism in 
his face which had something noble and wondrously 
attractive in it. 

Dominik had heard the words of Anton Scharf, 
“IT say unto you, Christ has arisen!” had followed him, 
and had questioned him as to the reason and purpose 
of his act. Following some vague impulse he accom- 
panied Anton to the Green Tree. And when he stood 
before the master of the boorish disciple, he knew at 
the very first glance that his fate was indissolubly 
joined to that of this man. 

He became Emanuel’s right hand. Emanuel needed 
the sort of help he could give him. Within a few days 
after his sending out of the seven with their proclama- 
tion, he had to hold regular consultation hours. It 
turned out that many more people than would be sup- 
posed had been touched by the declaration that Christ 
had arisen, and had found their way to the source of 
_ the new delusion. 

Among those whom Dominik received before they 
389 


390 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


were permitted to speak to Quint were not only men, 
women and girls of the lower classes, but even baron- 
esses, countesses, military men in citizen’s garb, among 
them many a prominent personage. ‘They did not hesi- 
tate to go to the ill-smelling, rather notorious square, 
which was more like a courtyard, courageously, though 
not without a shuddering, cross the greasy threshold 
of the Green Tree, enter the narrow vestibule buzzing 
with flies, and by the door on the right pass into a 
reception room smelling of cheese and drink. 

Within a few weeks Quint gained an insight into all 
the woe of the middle and upper classes, who display 
an exterior to the world so brilliant and envy-exciting. 
He beheld misery bitter beyond all conception. And it 
seemed to him that this was the genuine face of the 
times. | 

There was a woman whose husband, a nobleman, after 
vowing eternal love and fidelity, had physically contam- 
inated her, had beaten her, and devoured her wealth, 
and run away with another woman. ‘There was a girl 
whose own father whom she idolised had raped her. 
There was another girl whose worthless degraded father 
had snatched her away from her young healthy lover 
and sold her in marriage to a diseased roué of wealth 
and rank. There was a man who almost every night 
found the boots of a different paramour outside his 
wife’s bedroom, yet he loved his wife. ‘There was 
another man who through his wife’s machinations had 
been led to commit theft and murder. There was a 
third man, a man of rank, whose wife was a drunkard 
fallen so low that she sometimes came begging at his 
door, where her own children did not recognise her and 
shrank in horror from their mother. 

One man felt justified in heaping curses on his son, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 391 


because he embezzled from his father. Any number of 
people came who were unhappy in their profession. 
Their work seemed painful cgnstraint, a prison, a mis- 
fortune, the murder of their souls. And there was 
no escape from it because it was the sole means by 
which they could earn their daily bread. Among the 
galley slaves were military officers and city officials of 
high and low degree and representatives of every pro- 
fession. Each of them sighed to be what he was not. 

It naturally struck Emanuel and Dominik that these 
men, who in their own circle and in public life were 
generally unyielding in their hardness and pride, seemed 
to possess a high degree of humility and timorousness, 
even cowardice. Why did they seek him out in his 
dirty corner and ask counsel of him in his poverty, 
when very different advisers were at their command? 
They themselves said that their world was filled to the 
brim with cheating, lying, hypocrisy, hate, and all 
manner of wrong-doing. Each spied upon the other 
ready the instant he detected the least sign of weakness 
in his neighbour to pounce upon him and snatch away 
his all. 

“For,” they said, “modern society is based upon 
the unscrupulous warfare of interests. Woe to him 
who closes his eyes for an instant and ceases to deal 
blows right and left!” 

Many came to Quint who complained of an ab- 
normality in their natures, against which they strug- 
gled in vain. Among them were a number of ex- 
tremely refined, gentle persons with a disposition for 
beauty, fidelity, and even death, some of them going 
about harbouring the thought of suicide. Dominik, 
too, seemed to have contemplated suicide, and he often 
discussed the subject with Quint. 


392 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


But the troubles of most who came to Quint turned 
upon the acquisition and loss of money. Money cares 
poisoned their days and nights, ruined their lives. It 
seemed to Quint that our whole modern civilisation was 
an enforced orgy without spiritual . significance, in 
which men and women took part for the sake of a weak, 
superficial intoxication, which left them with a bad 
taste in their mouths. 

“ Wither the aim of society is the individual,” said 
Dominik, “ or the individual does not need society.” 

His opinion was that humanity has been debased to 
a sweating, groaning, cursing gang of labourers to 
turn the great machine of Moloch. In fact, humanity 
itself is part of the machine on a level with wheels, 
screws, rails, coal, and oil. 

‘That would not matter,” said Quint, “if only the 
body of which we are a part were not evil and infected. 
Bad yeast makes the bread rancid. Like cancers hidden 
under clothes of silk and satin and jewels, sensuality, 
ambition, the instinct to murder, men’s fear of their 
fellow-men are embedded in the body of civilisation. 
Who will make that body sound? ” 

His advice to each of his visitors was always the 
same. 

“ Bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
you, and persecute you. Love your neighbour as 
yourself. Give to him that asketh, and whosoever 
robs you, exact not of him that of which he has 
robbed you. Whosoever shall smite you on your right 
cheek, turn to him the other also. Whosoever takes 
away your coat, let him have your cloak also.” 

On the whole Quint’s answers were harmless. But 
one day a man came to him who asked what he should 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 393 


do since he could not reconcile it with his conscience 
to use weapons and he had just been enlisted into 
military service. Quint said: 

“Thou shalt not swear. Swear not allegiance to 
the king. Thou shalt not kill. Lay aside the sword 
that they will gird about your loins and take not the 
weapon that they will put into your hands.” 

“ They will throw me into prison,” said the man. 

*¢ Then remain in prison.” 

“They will spit upon me, curse me, maltreat me in 
every conceivable way, and outlaw me.” 

* That is what they did to Jesus Christ.” 

** But if they kill me? ” asked the man. 

* Then you must die,” said Emanuel. 


* * *% * * * *% * 


Quint and Dominik and sometimes Hedwig Krause 
took long walks along the banks of the Oder or 
across the melancholy meadow flats of the sluggish 
Ohle. Occasionally they would untie a boat, which 
they had found in a solitary spot tied to a willow tree 
hanging low over the water, and go rowing. That year 
spring had set in early, and there were nights along 
the river of infinite sadness and beauty. 

Curiously enough in the first two weeks of his stay 
at the Green Tree Emanuel never referred to his 
Messiah delusion in the presence of Hedwig or Dominik. 
He seemed to occupy himself exclusively with Hedwig’s 
troubles and cares arising from her dissatisfaction with 
her profession, and with the world-weary philosophy of 
Dominik, who was devoted to him body and soul. 

Dominik was always thinking of suicide. 

Persons who reach old age seldom recall the crises 
of their youth and are not inclined to consider them 


394 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


important. Yet life is as important in one period as 
in another for the reason that the same thing is always 
at stake, one’s whole personality. Tragedy and hero- 
ism, numerous examples prove, are as genuine in youth 
as in later life, perhaps even more so. ‘The moment in 
which the chaste, newly awakened idealism of a young 
gifted nature is struck as with a poisoned spear by the 
prevailing baseness of life, the stale vulgarity of the 
world, the wounded youth often takes that spear and 
resolutely, courageously thrusts it deeper into the heart 
of his own corporeal life. Year after year ships come 
sailing back with black sails from the labyrinth of the 
Minotaur. 

Dominik’s teachers would not allow him to come up 
for his final examinations, not on the ground of insuf- 
ficient knowledge, but of moral delinquency. Dominik 
gave as the reason for his professors’ opinion that he 
had been too self-sacrificing to his comrades. Though 
he could not be moved to practise the least deception 
on his own behalf, he had been persuaded to help some 
of his class-mates freely at examinations. __ 

He was by no means filled with a sense of his own 
immorality. On the contrary this school of ethics 
which aroused his disgust was to him the embodiment of 
the dirty triviality of the world, with its ridiculous em- 
phasis of the non-essential and its disregard of the es- 
sential, and he recoiled from the world with a feeling of 
deadly nausea. 

Dominik has left a little volume of verses and a num- 
ber of notes about Emanuel Quint. One evening when 
the dusky-red moon was hanging on the edge of the 
river meadows like a giant sphere, and he and Quint and 
Hedwig Krause were drifting in the boat, he recited 
some of his poems — the one and only time in his life. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 395 


His soul was like a wide-open blossom of royal beauty. 
It was as sensitive as a sensitive plant. And he as- 
cribed the same sensitiveness to all the oppressed and 
disinherited. 

Having nothing in common with any of the existing 
parties, he placed himself in the class of the despised 
and the crushed. 

The conclusion of one of the poems he read that night 
in the boat was: 


“From childhood on, all men conniving 
Have heaped contempt on me. 
And now the end of all my striving 
A scornéd grave will be.” 


Dominik was a man of many-sided talents astonish: 
ingly learned and well-read for his age, with a vast 
knowledge of the natural sciences. He loved cos- 
mologic and cosmogonic dreams. He spoke of the 
moral laws within us and the starry firmament above as 
of two equally great marvels. He held discourses to 
Emanuel Quint and Hedwig Krause, sprinkled with the 
names of Giordano Bruno, Herschel, and Kepler. With 
eyes glowing he described how Galileo in prison had 
said: ‘* And yet it does move,” and how mankind had 
always stoned its greatest benefactors. If he lived, he 
said, he would do his best with the people, through the 
people, among the people, and for the people. 

As if by nature belonging to it, he joined the old 
romantic school. He loved Novalis who said, “ Ger- 
manism is true popularity.” He loved the whole group, 
because their free, bold thinking was never choked by 
rationalism. It recognised the mystery of existence and 
let it live. 

Dominik combined the intellect for independent re- 


396 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


search and pride in it with the mystical fervour of a 
rather Catholic Christianity, which inspired him with a 
soft, yearning lyricism. 

Beside Novalis his favourite poet was Holderlin. 
When alone he recited his poems by heart and went 
about carrying a well-thumbed “ Hyperion” in his 
pocket. 

This may make clear what it was that chained Dom- 
inik to Emanuel. It was above all the personality of 
Quint that attracted him. The most ordinary human 
being was a mystery to the young student. How much 
more so Quint, whose secret pretension he knew. Thus 
he rushed into the turbid atmosphere surrounding Quint 
in a state rather of artificial eagerness than blind cre- 
dulity, yet with a conscious, resolute will, because he felt 
that the way of the master whom he had found led to a 
place which held out the greatest allurements for him, 
the joy of peace and paradise. This holy man, as he 
liked to call him, and as he called him from conviction, 
had, as it were, only strayed into the world like him- 


self. 


* Behold, the stranger is here, like you 

An exile in his native land. Sad hours were 
His lot. But early in his life 
The happy day is nearing. 

Deal kindly with the stranger. Few the joys 

He has been granted here below. But in the midst 
Of such friendly men he patiently 
Awaits the great Day of Rebirth.” 


Strangely enough Quint in his intercourse with Dom- 
inik was free, plain and humanly simple. The student’s 
presence had a restful effect upon him. They had en- 
tered into a sort of tacit yet firm pact, and the unison 
between them was almost magic in its completeness, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 397 


Dominik lodged in a disreputable place with some rail- 
way workmen. He had nailed a crucifix over his bed 
and placed another on the table beside his bed. Never- 
theless he did not occupy himself much with the Bible, 
and he and Quint seldom discussed the Bible or any re- 
ligious topic. A statement of Quint’s once when the 
Saviour’s name was mentioned had turned Dominik’s 
head, or, as he kimself thought, had enlightened him: 

‘Christ? Ido not know Him. Or else I myself am 
Christ.” 


CHAPTER XXIV 


Ir was not until ten days after he had received his com- 
mission that Martin Scharf arrived at the Green Tree 
with Gustav Quint. On the way to Giersdorf he had 
visited his own home and his parents’ grave, where 
he prayed and in all seriousness told the dead under 
the sod that “ it is sown in corruption, it is raised in in- 
corruption,” and the time was near when it was given 
to him to raise them from death. On his way through 
his native village he was accosted by the owner of 
his new home, who forced him to stay with him over 
Sunday so that they could go to court together the 
next day and take the final steps in the transfer of 
the property. After Martin left, the new owner told 
everybody he met that Martin Scharf was so crazy 
that it took every bit of one’s own understanding to 
remain sane in his presence. 

Old Quint by no means gave Martin a friendly re- 
ception. His wife, who every spring went out to sell 
vegetables, was away. Neither the father nor August 
would hear of Gustav’s journey to Breslau, and for a 
long time there was nobody that could overcome his 
obstinacy. Finally at the end of about five days the 
mother came home and negotiations could be carried 
on more peaceably, though from her, too, Martin, re- 
spectable and confidence-inspiring though he was, found 
it difficult to wring consent. 

She wept over Emanuel copiously and heaped re- 
proaches upon him. In one and the same breath she 


398 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 399 


swore that he had not been right in his head from his 
very birth and that with all his talents and with all 
his opportunities he might have been the prop of the 
family. To everything that Martin related of him she 
had only one thing to say: 

“The fool, the lazy good-for-nothing, the crank.” 

Finally, however, she agreed to let Gustav go with 
Martin, chiefly because Gustav himself pled so urgently. 

“ Well,” was her bitter way of consenting, “ you 
want to make my youngest one crazy, too.” 

For a whole day the carpenter’s hut resounded with 
a violent domestic quarrel. At Mrs. Quint’s suggestion 
Martin adjusted the matter with a dollar to her hus- 
band and a dollar to August, and the old carpenter 
silenced made off with, his booty. 


* * * * %* * * * 


Martin Scharf holding Gustav’s hand presented him- 
self to Quint with beaming eyes. Emanuel clasped 
his brother to his breast, and for the next three days 
Gustav was the one thing in the world to him. He 
seemed to have forgotten himself, his mission, his se- 
cret resolution, his Jesus mania, his past fate and future 
destiny, his disciples, his friends and enemies, every- 
thing except his brother. The behaviour of both of 
them was childlike and touching. Emanuel gave up his 
cot to Gustav and slept on the sofa. He asked Dom- 
inik and other companions of his to buy little trifles, 
which the boy had beheld in astonishment in show- 
windows. Among them was a little set of tools. For 
hours at a time Emanuel himself helped him with a 
pretty bit of work. At his request the disciples treated 
the boy to soda water, and took him to look at the wild 
animals in the menagerie. Intoxicated by all this 


- 


400 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


wealth of new impressions he looked up to Emanuel full 
of rapture and admiration. 

Gustav was a delicate blond who by no means re- 
sembled the child of a peasant; and the very day of 
his arrival Emanuel presented him with marked pride 
to Hedwig at the entrance to the hospital. From 
Emanuel’s expression it was evident he was thinking: 

“Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And when 
a look of gravity suddenly overcast his face it meant, 
“S Woe to thee if thou offend one of these little ones!” 
With his brother, Emanuel seemed all devotion. For 
a number of days in helpless dependence upon him, he 
looked upon the world out of his brother’s eyes. 


* * * * * * * * 


Dominik was intimate with a waitress, a girl who 
had fallen into the power of the host of the tavern 
and beer-garden under the room in which Dominik 
lodged. ‘The whole house was a low disreputable den, 
bearing the classic name of the Grove of the Muses, 
a name with which the much-vaunted present retro- 
actively poisoned the pure air of Parnassus and turned 
that divine mountain of the past into a dust-heap. 

Elise Schuhbrich, though resigned and without hopes, 
was deeply in love with Dominik. When eighteen 
years old she had given birth to a child, and as is 
usual in such cases had been turned out of the house 
by her father, inspector of a railroad station. He 
threatened to kill her if she ever let him see her in his 
home again. 

Without means of support she naturally became every 
man’s prey, was “ legalised ”— that is, illegalised — 
and finally found her way to that poisonous hole. 

One day Elise appeared before Quint to confess all 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 401 


her heart’s woe, to unburden herself of all her misery. 

“ Your parents who curse you, your brothers and 
sisters who despise and condemn you, all who pronounce 
judgment upon you and your acts, judge according to 
the flesh. Sins are condemned by sin alone. I judge 
nobody,”— which showed that Quint’s position was the 
same as that which in Christ has given rise to so much 
dispute. Laying his hand as in blessing on the head 
of the kneeling girl he added, “ Arise! Thy sins be 
forgiven thee.” 

From that day Elise Schuhbrich, the despised waitress 
of the Grove of the Muses, idolised her father con- 
fessor. Since she was chained to her mean employ- 
ment at the bar and did not wish to forego his and her 
lover’s company, she managed that Quint and Dominik 
should come to the public-house in the evening and sit 
at one of the tables at which she served. 

The amount of filth in which a man wallows by 
compulsion or of his own free will is not always proof 
of the filthiness of his soul. 

In one of the rooms an old artist, a professor of 
painting, and several youthful artists of idealistic 
temperament met regularly. Some of them had suc- 
cumbed to the depraving influence of drink and low 
erotics. The professor himself, always surrounded by 
an admiring swarm of pupils, was an inveterate bibber. 
His one meal a day consisted of a Bismarck herring 
drowned in vast quantities of beer and wine. He had 
a black faun’s face, moist red faun’s lips, and a tumbled 
head of black hair which hung over his sombre, spark- 
ling eyes. Dominik sometimes joined this circle. The 
professor occasionally received him with a snicker and 
dubbed him “ our Asra ” and “ our Sir Toggenburg,” 
hinting at his relations with Elise Schuhbrich. 


402 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


It created no slight sensation when Dominik, who 
had not showed up at the Grove of the Muses for about 
two weeks, one evening appeared again with Quint, his 
brother Gustav, and his eight peasant disciples. ‘The 
professor could scarcely open his eyes wide enough — 
he usually sat with them half-closed. While all about 
him burst into laughter and gave the newcomers a 
noisy greeting, he kept his look fastened upon Quint 
as if disconcerted and alarmed, or as if by the light of 
the gas-jets in the heavy vapours of tobacco and drink 
it was impossible for him, to decide whether the man 
were a real man and not a mere creation of his fevered 
brain. 

Very various were the guests that sat at the differ- 
ent tables served by nine waitresses —the number of 
the muses — though they were alike in that most of 
them bore the mark of the Venus vulgivaga upon their 
low receding foreheads. People came here who to 
judge by their hands, clothes, and bearing were prob- 
ably employed in the cattle-yard. Others showed by 
their seedy appearance that they were subordinate clerks 
in ill-ventilated offices. There were students in numbers. 
At a table by himself sat an athletic man with sly 
eyes and a bull’s neck whose place was never disputed. 
He probably earned his living by snapping chains, 
lifting heavy weights, and tearing whole packs of cards 
at a time. Here was a young man who looked like an 
unsuccessful lawyer, there one who may have been a 
government employé, another who betrayed the clergy- 
man on a trip from home. At a table near the bar 
there was always a noisy group of small traders. In 
short there was that melting-pot mixture of classes 
which arises when the major in citizen’s garb and the 
non-commissioned officer, the aristocratic lord and the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 403 


head waiter, the clerk and the domestic servant har- 
moniously go fishing in the same reeking, stagnant 
pool. 

As many of the guests as could see Quint and his 
companions immediately fastened their eyes upon him, 
and within a short time silence prevailed throughout 
the place, as if each of those chattering, gesticulating 
men had forgotten the end of his sentence. For an 
instant the topers- even interrupted themselves in their 
drinking and the gluttons bent over their tough beef- 
steaks with greedily popping eyes, stopped chewing and 
gazed at Quint and his queer retinue. It was not until 
some time had passed that they were all back again 
at their eating, drinking, and jabbering, at their rough 
jesting with the waitresses, all of whom had immediately 
rushed to serve the remarkable saint. 

When he appeared again about five days later the 
girls had already jokingly acquainted the guests with 
his mania. They made merry over the Fool in Christ, 
Emanuel Quint, who had opened his new church in a 
public-house with girl waitresses, and whose symbol was 
not the cross but the red light. Nevertheless Quint 
compelled the respect of an insane man, and several 
days elapsed before a few here and there made bold 
to tease him openly. 

Gradually Quint’s presence attracted a number of 
very different men, and the table at which he and not 
the picturesque professor draped in a light Roman 
cloak was the centre became longer and longer. The 
conversation in which Emanuel seldom joined turned 
upon art, literature, the various branches of science, 
and social-philosophic questions. It became known 
where Quint was to be found most days in the week; 
and one evening Benjamin Glaser and Kurt Simon, 


404 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


who was serving a voluntary term of one year in the 
army in Breslau, joined the table. | 

Later the world reproached Emanuel and concluded 
that he was a moral degenerate, not only because he him- 
self spent his evenings in that disreputable environment 
but because he brought his brother Gustav along and 
even ruined Hedwig Krause’s reputation, so that she was 
expelled from the rank of deaconesses under the pro- 
tectorship of the Gurau Lady and had to continue her 
work in the non-sectarian Red Cross Society — all this 
because she one evening visited the Grove of the Muses 
with Dr. Hiilsebusch and sat at the table with Quint. 

Gustav clung to his brother with pitiful devotion. 
To Quint’s educated young acquaintances, who observed 
a fascinating, often awe-inspiring similarity between the 
career of this dangerous eccentric Quint and the life 
and character of the true Saviour, the boy seemed to be 
the most fervent, the most believing of his disciples. 
Gustav’s child’s eyes, without a shadow of doubt to 
dim the purity of their faith, confessed how his brother 
was all in all to him—friend, protector, lord and 
saviour, his God, his idol. The boy lived to be only 
fourteen years old. Perhaps had his life been longer, 
he might have had a career similar to Quint’s. 

One day a man by the name of Weisslander, who had 
been a plasterer and was now preparing himself in 
design at the art school, openly blamed Quint for 
bringing the boy to the bar-room. 

“We have only a brief while to spend together. 
The hours, ay, the minutes that belong to us are 
numbered. Our parting is at hand, and you cannot 
know under what sign we live, for what hour of the 
day and year and for what purpose we have been 
granted to each other. For we wander far from here 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 405 


hither and thither, and although we are here, we are 
not here. We are not with you, nor are you with us. 
What you seek here we do not seek, and to that which 
you find here we are blind. The eyes of the angels 
sanctify what they look upon. Do you think that he 
is less than an angel? ” 

* Highfalutin nonsense,” said Weisslainder, at which 
everybody —the professor most vociferously — or- 
dered him to be silent. 

“Tt is the words of the devil and the eyes of the 
devil,” Quint concluded, ‘‘ that make heaven and earth 
common.” 

* You are nothing but a low hussy, Minna,’ said 
somebody at the neighbouring table by way of jest, 
giving the waitress who had brought him beer a slap 
on the back. 

* You might have cut that out,” said Dominik turn- 
ing to the stranger. He had noticed that the waitress 
spilled half the beer and was heroically choking back 


her tears. 
* * * * * * * * 


In those days Emanuel’s demeanour gave the impres- 
sion of radiant self-assurance and fearlessness. His 
walk, his bearing, his look breathed a proud liberty. 
To the disciples he seemed almost commanding. Dom- 
inik in his exuberance of youthful enthusiasm said 
to Kurt Simon and Benjamin that in his eyes the 
carpenter’s son was a born genius, a born prince of 
the spirit, a king and ruler of a spiritual kingdom 
of heaven. With the marks of omniscient pain on his 
arched brow he was the true crucifixus on earth. 

When the time came for Gustav to return home, 
Quint’s disciples and friends could not remain un- 


406 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


touched at the sight of Quint’s emotion. Dibiez was 
to escort the boy, and Quint, his disciples, and several 
friends including Hedwig Krause, Benjamin Glaser, 
Kurt Simon, and the inseparable Dominik accompanied 
the two on foot as far as Schmolz. It was a glorious 
Sunday morning. All the bells of the Breslau church 
towers, the old cathedral, St. Magdeleine and St. Eliza- 
beth, rang far out into the green fields mingling with 
the joyous song of the larks. 

On the whole way his disciples and even his friends 
remained at the usual distance behind Emanuel. His 
friends, especially Dominik, took care that his tender 
melancholy and solemnity should not be disturbed by 
the grossly naive questioning of the disciples. Quint 
held his right arm about the boy’s shoulder and clasped 
his right hand in his. The boy clinging to his idolised 
brother leaned his pale, ecstatic face against him. 
There was a hard lump in his throat, and tears ran 
down his cheeks. Before entering the fourth-class com- 
partment at the station in Schmolz, he threw himself 
on Quint’s breast, and Quint said to him: 

“If you live, you will follow in my footsteps. If 
you live, you will do the works of the Son of man. 
You will descend to hell, I say to you, and on the 
third day you will arise. But if it has been destined 
otherwise, you will be in paradise with me even sooner.” 

Though he spoke in a low tone Dominik, Hedwig 
Krause, and Martin Scharf overheard what he said. 


CHAPTER XXV 


On the homeward way his friends and _ disciples 
formed a little congregation about Quint devoutly 
listening to his words. The master’s pain, the master’s 
melancholy created an atmosphere of sadness, in which 
they all breathed. 

“Do you not feel expectation everywhere in nature? 
When you listen, when you sink yourself in nature, 
do you not feel painful thrills of joy, does it not become 
clear to you that everything about you is waiting, 1s 
temporary, and not final? Have you never wished to 
be there where the waves of spirit pouring from you 
— your senses are spirit — come to an end? Have you 
never been beset by an ardent passion to begin at the 
outermost limit? — He that hath the understanding let 
him understand.” 

Dominik ventured to interpose: 

“‘ Suicide is the real beginning of all philosophy. 
_ Suicide is the only act that has all the marks of the 
transcendental.” 

Unsuspecting, Kurt Simon and Benjamin Glaser 
asked simultaneously : 

“ What's that Dominik? Do you mean to say you 
want to commit suicide? ” 

“You do not understand me,” he said. 

Without heeding the interruption Quint walking 
along the road edged with grass and daisies continued 
to wander deeper into the mystic stretches of his soul. 

“ Nature everywhere is expectation. Do you think 

407 


408 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


that the clamour of the larks over our heads is final? 
I say unto you, it does not contain as much of the truth 
as there is in the report of a messenger who heard the 
report of another messenger who knows of a third mes- 
senger about whom it is said that he learned a breath 
of the truth. 

“Verily, if you have not certainty and faith as this 
child that left me you will remain far from the king- 
dom of heaven. Whosoever despises one of these little 
ones, it were better he hung a millstone about his 
neck and were drowned. Should he live as a God-for- 
saken corpse? God is spirit, and where the spirit is not, 
there is death even if the body be alive. Whosoever 
kills in the right sense, he makes alive in the right 
sense. But whosoever makes alive in the false sense, 
he commits murder.” 

An expression of a shy, secret hope betrayed itself in 
a maidenly blush on Dominik’s face. 

“1 think,” said Kurt Simon, “ that in our world to- 
day, the child, the boy, and even the young man suffer 
from disrespect.” 

“That is true,” said Emanuel. ‘ Yet we must base 
our earthly preaching on hope where there is nothing 
to hope, as the apostles did who came after me”— 
Kurt Simon, Benjamin Glaser, and Hedwig Krause 
started with a sense of shock, while the others were | 
thrilled with a holy shudder —“ the apostles who, as 
it is written, like myself ‘ against hope believe in hope.’ 

‘A thousand years with the Lord are as one day, a 
day that was yesterday and is past. And yet a day 
will come even to this terrestrial darkness. But when 
that day is at hand the sons of man and the daughters 
of man shall see the countenance of my God. They 
shall no longer merely dream and prophesy, for the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 409 


spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh, and the last 
like the first shall have life and knowledge. 

“For it is the spirit above that giveth life. The 
flesh availeth naught. God is a spirit. Await with all 
flesh the future of our God, the Lord. I tell you, He 
will enkindle a fire in your sons and daughters by which 
He will be born again in your sons and daughters, and 
thenceforth the mystery of the kingdom will no longer 
be the light hidden under a bushel. The son of man 
and the daughter of man will resemble the lightning 
in the glory of their days. They will resemble brothers 
and sisters of the lightning which darts from heaven and 
will shine upon everything that is in heaven and under 
the heaven. Wait!” 

** How shall we know? ” asked blacksmith John, “ that 
the day of the Son of man is no longer far off? ” 

“My children,” said Quint, “know by me that it 
is at hand. Would you doubt my testimony? Who 
should bear more valid testimony to the Son of man 
than the son of man? Who should bear more valid 
testimony to the spirit of the Father and the spirit of 
the Son of God? The Father’s Spirit gives testimony 
to my spirit that I may bear testimony to Him in this 
world. Whosoever among you know not of whose 
spirit I am the child and that the words which I speak 
are spirit and life, he is far from the kingdom of 
God.” 

“ We all know it,” cried the disciples. 

Emanuel smiled quietly and looked from one to the 
other with the same kindly smile. 

“You said, ‘ Wait,” observed Krezig, the rag- 
picker, who in great perturbation followed Quint’s 
speech with strained attention. ‘Then are you not 
He who is to come? Must we wait for another? ” 


410 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“J am he that knows and he that seeks,” replied 
Quint. “But you are they that know not and see 
not. Therefore I say to you, Believe, since ye are of 
little knowledge. And he that believeth in me shall 
not believe in me but in Him that sent me. There- 
fore if you blaspheme against me, you blaspheme 
against the Son of man. And verily, as I have said, 
love your enemies, bless them that curse you and I 
will love and bless you. But if you blaspheme against 
the Ghost, you blaspheme against the Son of God, 
and set Satan as a Lord over you.” 

They were now drawing near the city. Quint pointed 
to the dusky cloud of smoke hanging over it. 

“ Satan is the liar, the criminal from the beginning. 
He is the lie and the father of the lie. He is the crime 
against the Ghost and the father of the crime against 
the Ghost. Satan is the lord of laws. Satan locked 
God and men in prison. Satan sits on Peter’s chair. 
Satan holds the key of hell like a sceptre in his hand, 
and promises to open the kingdom of heaven with it. 
Satan has turned men into devils, and idols of wood, 
marble, bronze and painted canvas into saints. But I 
say unto you, wood, bronze, marble, canvas cannot 
sanctify man. It is man alone who can sanctify them. 
Therefore shall ye become holy men of God. 

“ You are the temples of God, temples that walk and 
are filled with God’s spirit. There are no other 
temples, no temples of stone and metal, no temples with 
towers in which brazen bells hang. God’s mouth is not 
of iron, and his tongue is not a bell’s clapper of brass. 
Who would give God an iron mouth and a tongue of 
iron? Is he sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal? 
No, God is the spirit. We know that He alone is the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 411 


spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of truth 
and knowledge, and the spirit of love. 

** A man may be the servant of another man, but he 
shall not be God’s servant. They that wear priests’ 
robes, preach from the pulpits, sell grace, apportion 
rigorously, and call themselves ministers and servants of 
God are in truth ministers and servants of Satan. 
Satan alone has ministers and servants. God knows 
not ministers or servants. God is far more a servant 
of man than willing to lower men to be servants of 
Him. I tell you, God exalts men. Otherwise they 
would be godless. And whosoever is debased before 
God, the devil alone has debased him. But I who am 
debased by men am exalted by the Father, who has 
exalted Himself in me. 

** Enter the churches where with hardened, crippled 
souls they worship bones and the corpse of Him that 
Satan killed, instead of themselves being the angels and 
vessels of the spirit. Wherewith will they serve God 
except with God? What can they offer God from the 
poverty of their servitude? Think you He wishes to 
be a Father of beaten dogs, of whining slaves in chains, 
or takes delight in planting His feet on their necks? 
Verily, I see the time when your churches, your pulpits, 
your judges’ seats, your altars, where they give men 
abominable things to eat, will sink under the earth, 
which will sprout eternally under the free footsteps of 
the children of God.” 

It is evident how the scriptural words of the first 
genuine Messiah alternated in kaleidoscopic change 
with the words of this new Messiah, and how the same 
thoughts kept grouping and regrouping themselves in 
new forms. It seemed as if with each word he uttered 


412 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


a power was at work which brought out everything from 
within as if with the breath of the first creation. At 
any rate his words emboldened and refreshed his 
listeners, though his ideas were intoxicating and en- 
rapturing rather than enlightening. 

Later when the young people were alone together, 
Benjamin Glaser with curious tensity asked Dominik 
what he thought of Quint’s statement in regard to the 
apostles that came after him. 

“If you want a rationalistic answer, you have come 
to the wrong man. I am too greatly under his spell. 
Novalis says, ‘ Every enchantment is the result of partial 
identification with the enchanted,’ and I, the enchanted 
man, am identified with this magician. I understand 
him, I know him, I feel him at every turn. He has 
forced me to see, to believe, to feel everything as he 
will. And with the exception of you and Mr. Simon, 
hasn’t he exerted the same power over all his com- 
panions? 

“In place of an answer I will again quote Novalis 
—a short dialogue of his. I think a life without 
magic can be conceived only by superficial thinkers. 
I am certain that eighteen years before, when I hap- 
pened to be born, was not the first time I entered the 
universe. Here is the dialogue. 

“¢Who told you about me?’ asked the pilgrim. 
‘Our mother.? ‘Who is your mother?’ ‘The mother 
of God.’ ‘Since when have you been here?’ ‘Since 
I left the grave.” ‘Did you ever die before?’ ‘ How 
could I be alive otherwise? ? ” 

“Then you believe in the transmigration of souls?” 
asked Glaser. 

“J don’t know what would be gained if I didn’t. Is 
it less of a wonder if I was born for the first time? 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 413 


And in our own narrow field of vision do we not see 
how everything is endlessly renewed? And beyond 
that narrow field, which our weak consciousness illumines, 
is there not the field of eternity and infinity? ” 


* * * * * * * * 


In the meantime the police had begun to take notice 
of the doings in the Green Tree, and had extracted 
information from the neighbours and the host himself. 
The host spoke favourably of Quint because since Quint 
had been with him he sold more beef-steaks and horse 
meat sausages in his butcher shop and more beer and 
drinks in his restaurant. He treated the police officer 
with whom he was on good terms and assured him that 
Quint and his following were nothing but harmless re- 
ligious cranks. 

Therese Katzmarek and Martha Schubert had dis- 
covered Emanuel’s whereabouts and had found situa- 
tions in Breslau in factories not far from the Green 
Tree. They used every opportunity to visit their idol. 
The host explained to the police officer that the women- 
folk usually came before nightfall for prayer-meet- 
ing. Quint’s disciples conducted prayer-meetings 
several times a day in a back room of the inn. Emanuel 
himself never attended them. ‘They were always quiet 
and orderly, as the host said, and he thought it spoke 
well for them that one evening some Social Democrats 
coming home from a meeting and hearing the singing 
of hymns had thrown a large stone into the room. For 
all the appetite and thirst that the host’s friend, the 
police officer, displayed, he also displayed a certain 
tenacity in interrogation, and asked for information 
about Dominik, Hedwig Krause, Benjamin Glaser, Kurt 
Simon, and all the rest of Quint’s visitors. The host 


414 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


did not dare to pass over in silence the fact that the 
agitator Kurowski had one day come to see Quint. 

But what the people wanted of Quint neither the host 
nor his wife knew. They had overheard things that 
had been said in his room — of course purely by acci- 
dent, because their laundry-room was directly next to 
his. They could assure the officer that nothing un- 
seemly had ever happened, not even when women of 
the street were closeted with him. The hosts had even 
noticed girls who expected to become mothers. So far 
as they knew, though they had come to him in their 
despair hoping he would help them, he had never dis- 
pensed any drugs or perpetrated anything of a sus- 
picious nature. Some of the girls left comforted by 
his words. Others had gone away disappointed. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


Finatzty that much-discussed evening came when the 
circle which met in the Grove of the Muses was broken 
up, and the visits to that evil resort ceased. 

It was the evening that Hedwig Krause was there. 
For protection she had asked Dr. Hiilsebusch, a man of 
irreproachable morals, to escort her. As a matter of 
fact Dr. Hiilsebusch had long wanted to observe for 
himself the réle Quint was playing in that disreputable 
quarter. It was then not quite safe to attend meet- 
ings of such circles, because the government every- 
where scented a tendency to conspiracy, and a sort of 
exceptional law was being enforced with draconic 
vigour. That very severity provoked obstinate, fanatic 
resistance, and contributed to the formation of bold 
revolutionary ideas in many good young heads. A 
mighty social upheaval which was to regenerate the 
world was in all seriousness counted upon at the very 
latest in the year 1900. As the poor peasant workmen 
who had followed the Fool awaited the millennium and 
the New Jerusalem, so the Socialists and the young 
intellectuals closely allied to the Socialists in their views 
awaited the Socialistic, social, and theiefore ideal, state 
of the future. 

The utopia like a gay narcotic cloud hovered over 
many tables, where persons of various classes discussed 
politics enlivened by the fumes of beer and tobacco. 
Whatever the name by which they called their ideal, 
whether social state, liberty, paradise, millennium, or 

415 


416 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


kingdom of heaven, it arose from the same spiritual 
craving for redemption, purity, happiness, and per- 
fection. This utopian cloud ever assuming different 
forms always hung over the heads of the circle at 
Quint’s table in the Grove of the Muses. 

Hedwig Krause’s parents would have been not a 
little shocked to see their daughter sitting beside Quint 
in such surroundings. Professor Mendel, the super- 
intendent of the hospital in which she worked, was a 
renowned scientist and physician of a liberal turn of 
mind. Even aside from Dr. Hiilsebusch and Hedwig 
he took an interest in Quint. A lover of music and 
personally acquainted with the most eminent German 
writers and artists, he made his home at the outskirts 
of the city a social centre which became well known in 
Germany. His wife, a woman of some means and child- 
less, supported talented young artists, and had adopted 
one of them, the painter Bernhard Kurz. 

Once, when Hedwig was visiting Professor Mendel, 
he said to her: 

“ A woman like you can go anywhere without harm 
to herself.” 

With this and the sight of Bernhard Kurz, who sat 
not far from her at table, to encourage her she soon 
lost the sense of uncertainty and discomfort that had 
come upon her when she entered the notorious resort. 
Besides, she was not the only woman present. Op- 
posite her next to a very large man resembling a 
Russian peasant sat a young woman, who kept look- 
ing up with an air of languishing dependence at 
her neighbour’s small, bleared, blinking pig’s eyes al- 
most hidden behind his heavy brows and lashes match- 
ing his heavy shock of hair and beard. He was a 
poet, almost always without a roof over his head or 


_ THE FOOL IN CHRIST 417 


enough to eat and drink. The down from his feather 
bed was still clinging to his unkempt hair, and he 
kept on his long caftan-like overcoat because there 
was no other garment between it and his shirt. Every 
now and then he would jot down notes on a sheet of 
paper. His name was Peter Hullenkamp and _ his 
friend’s name was Annette von Rhyn. His was an 
apostle-like figure. To Kurt Simon he seemed like 
a hermit in the forest, to Dominik like a cynical philos- 
opher of ancient times. He was indeed a man not of 
the age in which he lived. Behind his stiff, mighty 
brow a remote future and a remote past formed an 
eternally fermenting fairy tale. Annette von Rhyn, 
who trotted beside him everywhere like Antigone be- 
side Cidipus, was completely immersed in this seeth- 
ing fairy tale— she by him and he by her. She called 
him alternately the king of Taprobane, the king of 
the seven floating silver isles, the keeper of the hang- 
ing gardens of Semiramis. For four weeks she ad- 
dressed him as the Duke of Ophir, the next four weeks 
he was her Haroun-al-Raschid, and while she picked the 
fleas from him they lived in palaces served by hun- 
dreds of slaves, sitting at tables heavily laden with 
fruits, spices, and drinks. 

Beside Hedwig Krause and Annette von Rhyn there 
was a third woman, Josefa Schweglin who had the 
courage to visit the disreputable place and the Fool 
of the Green Tree, as Quint was now called. She 
was a Russian-Polish girl who had studied in Switzer- 
land, was in sympathy with what Turgenev calls nihil- 
ism, and held extremely individualistic opinions. She 
had a great capacity and passion for mathematics 
and a still stronger passion for the struggles of the 
lower classes for life and liberty. Her watchword was, 


418 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“ Everything with the people, for the people, through 
the people,” though she came of a proud aristocratic 
family and like many of her Russian and Polish sisters 
had been bred to silk clothes, horses and carriages, 
servants and governesses. 

In this circle of educated, intellectual people Quint’s 
peasant disciples were somewhat shy and taciturn. But 
they kept their eyes, glowing with a mystic flame, 
fastened upon their Messiah whom they had bought 
at the cost of ardent self-sacrifice. Their eyes created 
a spell which he could not but feel and which was 
not to be treated lightly. There was no escaping it. 
Those simple men though modest and timid, perhaps, 
would not allow themselves to be done out of a penny 
of that which they thought they had a right to demand 
from Quint. Woe! woe! if some day he should stand 
before them exposed as a swindler. 

Emanuel for his part had finished his reckoning with 
life, thereby gaining a full sense of independence and 
freedom. But he was well aware that life here in the 
city was clutching at him with a thousand new ten- 
tacles. Though he clearly sensed the indifference and 
hatred of the large mass, he nevertheless felt that more 
and more eyes were turned upon him with tense ex- 
pectation, and he knew that nothing short of a final, 
supernatural revelation would satisfy them. No for- 
ward or backward step here. Often when drifting 
alone in the boat on the Oder, he thought of diving 
into the river and disappearing. But he hoped and 
waited with almost feverish longing for another sort 
of death, a death he dimly foresaw in the unknown 
but surely awaited. Every evening that did not bring 
death brought disappointment, the sun of each new 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 419 


day that shone into his chamber found him disen- 
chanted. 

While the circle that had gathered about his table 
and many outside the circle looked to the unmasking 
of the wondrous man as to an act of redemption, power- 
ful waves were flooding his own soul, rollmg forward 
to death through the decree of fate as to an act of 
redemption. 

Dominik had said to his love, Elise Schuhbrich, that 
Quint was a man who walked upon earth in sublime 
spiritual grandeur. His whole being was elevated to 
the divine, his feet scarcely touching the flat grossness 
of the low environment in which she moved. In fact 
Emanuel had ebullitions of the supernaturally great 
and sublime. He himself repeatedly said to Domin- 
ik that he felt closer to the invisible than the vis- 
ible. Schubert the weaver said he was already half in 
heaven. 

On the whole his position at the table, where his 
disciples adored him, where the professor considered him 
a good model and a sensational fool, and one young artist 
considered him a genius and another a simpleton, was ri- 
diculous rather than enviable, especially since everybody, 
through the forcible impression of his personality, was 
uncertain in the bottom of his soul whether Emanuel 
Quint was a simple, genuine fool or a conscious, arrant 
rogue. Those who were wholly devoted to Quint and 
firmly believed in his single-heartedness with a belief 
tinged with mysticism but devoid of bigotry were the 
Polish girl, Josefa Schweglin, the poet Peter Hullen- 
kamp, Kurt Simon, Benjamin Glaser, and above all 
Hedwig Krause, Elise Schuhbrich, and Dominik. 


* * * * * * * * 


420 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


That evening the company was more numerous than 
ever before. For a time they discussed commonplaces, 
while the people sitting in the other rooms and at the 
other tables made fun of them. A group of half- 
drunken clerks, in lowered voices alternately sang the 
hymn, “ Ach bleib mit deiner Gnade!” and “ Du bist 
verriickt, mein Kind, du musst nach Berlin! ” 

Though few waggons passed by in the small street, 
the dull roar of a great city penetrated the closed 
shutters and rose above the clatter of the beer seidels 
and the shrill orders of the waitresses. 

Dr. Hiilsebusch, the common-sense man, had made 
up his mind thoroughly to test Hedwig’s idol. While 
the rest of the company, divided into little groups, were 
discussing various questions he entered into the pros and, 
cons of vivisection with Dominik. Dominik was strongly 
opposed to vivisection. Dr. Hiilsebusch on the con- 
trary considered all the horrible tortures imposed upon 
animals in the service of science as necessary for the 
good of humanity. ’ 

“Death begets death,” Dominik said. “ Even if it 
is a crime against mere animals, humanity would reap 
nothing but the curse inherent in every crime. Be- 
sides, mankind already possesses such vast treasures 
of knowledge that the only thing needful to rid itself 
of the majority of the ills against which artificial means 
are now employed is to use all that knowledge against 
the mass of brutal inanity in the world based upon 
low, narrow self-seeking.” 

“Then you are against the right of unrestricted 
research? ” said Dr. Hiilsebusch. 

‘“ Vivisection is a mean thing,” the professor shouted 
across the table several times. 

“ Gentlemen, if you limit the freedom of research,” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 421 


cried Dr. Hiilsebusch, ‘‘ how shall we ever arrive at 
tolerable conditions for all? ” 

“Science,” cried a man at the next table, “ has led 
us backward not forward.” 

** A man who makes such a statement,’ rejoined Dr. 
Hiilsebusch, *‘ knows as much of science as a cab-horse 
of playing piano.” 

The man from the next table who had imbibed pretty 
freely came over to Quint’s table and began to tell 
of a certain trouble, which he preferred not to men- 
tion by name, from which he had been suffering for 
four years. He had had at least fifteen physicians to 
treat him and yet it was growing worse and worse. 

“God himself could not cure you,” cried Dr. 
Hiilsebusch, “ if suffering with a trouble like yours for 
four years you still frequent a place like this. In 
time,” he continued, “ we shall learn with the help of 
science to control nature.” 

“If we only learned to control ourselves,’ said 
Dominik. 

“What good is all your self-control,” asked Dr. 
Hiilsebusch, * in the teeth of such fearful enemies of 
mankind as cholera, small-pox and_ tuberculosis? 
That’s where we physicians come in.” 

** As far as I can make out, fresh air, exercise, sun 
and soap constitute the medical gospel,” interjected 
Benjamin Glaser. 

Now Quint spoke. His educated listeners felt a 
degree of compassionate embarrassment at his antique 
biblical form of thought; but for that they were all 
the more courteous in their attention. 

** Satan,” he said in a voice now ringing hollow, now 
subdued to softer tones, “is the enemy and murderer 
from the beginning. Whosoever forms one body and 


42Q2 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


one spirit with God has eternal life. Satan alone 
brought sickness and death into the world. Satan’s 
curse under which we live means enmity, hate, self- 
seeking, law, and sin propagating itself through the 
law. Will anyone say that sickness is aught else than 
sin? ‘The devil was the beginning of law; and the end 
of law —the end therefore of sin and sickness — will 
be Christ.” 

Elise Schuhbrich was standing behind Dominik’s chair 
with both arms over his shoulder, her serious, somewhat 
weary little face under heavy blond braids turned de- 
youtly toward Quint. Her lover holding both her 
hands in his also kept his eyes fixed upon Quint. 

The agitator Kurowski now entered the tavern, 
greeted Quint, hung his overcoat on the clothes-horse, 
took a little mirror from his pocket, combed himself, 
ordered beer, chucked the waitress under the chin, and 
seated himself between Kurt Simon and Josefa 
Schweglin. 

“ All very well,” said Dr. Hiilsebusch taking care 
not to show that he thought Emanuel Quint insane, 
“but we can’t tell that to sick people who come to 
us wanting to be cured. I will be open with you. I 
am an opponent of Christianity. I hold with Goethe, 
Schiller and all our great philosophers that the Chris- 
tian teachings introduced an element into European 
civilisation antagonistic to human life. Take for in- 
stance Christianity’s condemnation and desecration of 
sex life. The evil it has wrought by that alone is 
immeasurable. It placed the process of sex love by 
which human beings are brought into life on the same 
level as the process by which men rid themselves of 
their excrement, in fact on a lower level. To my 
mind Christianity is the cancer that’s been eating into 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 423 


the social body for centuries and is doing so even to- 
day.” | 

A murmur went through the circle of disciples. An- 
ton Scharf was about to burst out in his sputtering 
way, but a word from the master silenced him. 

‘‘ A husbandman went out to sow his seeds. And 
as he sowed some fell on the way and were crushed, 
and the fowl of the air ate them up. And some fell 
on the rock and dried up. And some fell among the 
thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them. And 
some fell in good soil. But when they were about to 
sprout, the enemy came in the night and sowed tares 
among the wheat. And the year was a bad one. 
There was frost and drought, mildew and hail, and 
at the harvest there were few grains of wheat left.” 

“He might express himself more clearly. It 
wouldn’t hurt his voice,” Weisslinder remarked cynic- 
ally. 

Josefa Schweglin, who purposely used the same form 
of speech as the disciples, said: 

“Then what you mean, master, is that our present- 
day Christianity is the rock, the thorns, the hail, the 
drought, the mildew, in brief, everything but the orig- 
inal wheat of the sower. Very well. But is there even 
a grain of the old wheat left?” 2 

Quint instead of answering asked: 

‘‘ What should be done if a grain of the old wheat 
were left?” | 

“‘ It should be sowed in good soil.” — 

“ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone and bringeth forth no fruit. You 
have spoken well,” said Quint. 

“If I understand you rightly,” remarked Kurowski, 

‘you are by no means a Christian in the sense of the 


424: THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Christianity at present prevailing, whether Roman 
Catholic, Greek Catholic, or Protestant.” 

‘“‘T am the Resurrection and the Life,” said Quint. 

This remark produced a general stir among his listen- 
ers. They could not have exactly stated what the 
nature of the effect of his words upon them was. Each 
of them, whether a Christian whose religious sentiment 
was offended, or one who was merely shocked by the ex- 
travagance of the claim, or one who was on the alert 
for more revelations from the lunatic — each, even Dr. 
Hiilsebusch, felt an inexplicable thrill pass through 
his body. Every eye was fixed upon the new Messiah. 
He himself was caught by the false glamour as by 
something supernatural. Never was there such passion, 
such torturing desire to penetrate the mystery of a 
mind. 

“TI say to you, the mystery of the kingdom, the 
grain of mustard seed in the field of humanity, is 
unselfishness.”” Quint again quoted sentences from the 
Sermon on the Mount, such as, “ Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that de- 
spitefully use you, and persecute you.” 

“If living up to those principles and if unselfish- 
ness as practised to-day constitute the kingdom of God 
on earth I must say it is certainly not any larger 
than a grain of mustard seed,” said Josefa Schweglin. 

“ Evolution,” declared Dr. Hiilsebusch, “ the state, 
civilisation, are not to be based on_ unselfishness. 
Struggle, self-seeking remain the most potent motive 
factors. 'The domination of Christianity for two thou- 
sand years on account of this false tendency has been 
nothing but a prodigious hypocrisy, a monstrous fiasco. 
The world is propped on selfishness, nations are main- 
tained by selfishness, selfishness dictates and inspires all 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 425 


the large and petty transactions among men. The 
church proclaims its rule in the name of God, and 
in return demands servitude in the name of God. 'The 
lords want to get the better of the lords and the slaves ; 
the slaves want to get the better of the slaves and the 
lords. There is not an individual in the mad struggle 
of interests who is not his own fortress. Then shall 
he be unselfish and let his fortress be razed to the 
ground? The most barren principle there can be, I 
maintain, is unselfishness. Because anyone who would 
want to carry it out in practice to its logical conclusion, 
that. is, anyone who would secure peace at any cost, 
would have to leave the arena, the battle-ground, he 
would have to quit life voluntarily. Suicide, would be 
the true Christian act, the only final consequence of 
Christian teachings.” 

‘¢ Kill selfishness, and if you cannot kill it in any 
other way, then kill yourself. He that loveth his life 
shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world 
shall keep it unto life eternal, I tell you.” 


* * % * * * * *% 


Benjamin Glaser who may have drunk a bit too 
hastily, had been sitting with his head leaning on his 
hand and with his eyes unwaveringly fastened upon 
Quint. The words and looks of the Fool of the Green 
Tree seemed to drag him unresisting into a whirling 
vortex. He sprang from his seat and said in a loud 
quivering voice: 

*‘ Master, what shall I do to be worthy of you and 
to partake of the eternal life of which you speak?” 

Kurt Simon attempted to pull Benjamin back into 
his seat and persuade him to control himself. 


426 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“We are intelligent people and artists,” said the 
professor. ‘‘ We are not hysterical women.” 

“For goodness’? sake, don’t make a scene,” said 
Bernhard Kurz. “ We'll. make laughing-stocks of 
ourselves. The people will begin to notice us.” 

“ That’s going too far,” said Weisslinder. “ Shall 
we let a few high school youngsters disgrace us for- 
ever? ” 

Now Peter Hullenkamp solemnly rose to the full 
height of his apostle-like figure. 

‘“‘ Let him speak, I say. , You are a stale, flat, un- 
profitable, godless generation without the faintest sus- 
picion of the true spirit of Christianity. Drink your 
beer and smoke your cigars, but do not spit out the 
dirt of your souls when a worm which has been lying 
in the dust as a chrysalis for the first time spreads 
its butterfly wings.” Here he turned to Benjamin 
Glaser and tossed off a glass of whiskey. ‘* Forward,” 
he said, ‘‘ ever forward, young idealist. Do not allow 
yourself to be intimidated.” 

The poet’s speech along with the draught of whiskey 
produced general laughter. 

Benjamin in the meantime stood there his face pale, 
unmoved by all the protestations. 

“Why should I be intimidated?” he said. “TI 
think when one is going through an experience like 
ours and feels he is near a decisive moment in his life 
everything else is trivial.”” Benjamin stopped to find 
words and Dominik sprang up and embraced him. 

** Yes,” he cried in a loud voice, *‘ I am nothing but a 
high school youngster, but mayn’t high school young- 
sters who confront life hopelessly because it disgusts 
them, mayn’t they be seekers of God? ” 

“It would be better for you,” shouted Hiilsebusch, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 427 


“to make physical or chemical experiments and try to 
find out by what process egg albumen can be obtained 
from inorganic matter. We must learn to make bread 
of stones. That would solve the great social question, 
and you would become a genuine benefactor of man- 
kind.” 

‘* Bread? ” queried Dominik in a tone of contempt, 
shrugging his shoulders. ‘* Your scientific bread is too 
dry forme. If at least you had said manna.” 

‘‘The doctor is unquestionably right,” cried Kurow- 
ski. ‘ Either God cannot be found, although thou- 
sands and thousands of past generations have tried to 
- find him, or he has been found. In which case, I must 
say, it would not be worth the while to hunt him. Of 
what use is a God to me if after hundreds of thousands 
of years of reflection he has not succeeded in solving 
the social problem or isn’t interested in it? ” 

All now began to speak at once. In the babel it was 
impossible to distinguish any coherent statements. The 
man who had complained about physicians kept re- 
peating: 

“‘ Unselfishness would be an extremely dry sort of 
morality.” 

A man from one of the other tables who had come 
up and was holding a bad cigar aloft between two 
fingers as if from politeness, said: 

“I do not hesitate to admit that I am a sinner and 
in certain respects a believer. Jesus is far more to me 
than a great man. [amasinner. I hope for the for- 
giveness of sins and the eternal bliss that the Saviour 
has promised us. But I tell you, if His heaven were 
nothing but unselfishness, Jesus would have been the 
greatest cheat that ever lived. Of course he was not a 
cheat.” 


428 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Weisslainder returned with red rims under his eyes 
from a short absence with one of the waitresses. He 
shouted for beer; he beat his fist on the table. 

*¢ It’s a piece of vulgarity,” he cried, “to drag what. 
is holiest in the mud.” 

‘* Even in this environment I do not consider my- 
self dirty,” said Bernhard Kurz tranquilly rolling a 
cigarette. ‘* You probably know that the founder of 
the Christian religion was no society lion. His dis- 
ciples were common fishermen and workmen. I am not 
very sure of my Bible, but it seems to me that some- 
where in the Bible I read, * Christ receiveth sinners and 
eateth with them.’ Perhaps the gentleman does not 
know *—he meant Weisslinder —“ that the so-called 
gentiles called the first Christian communities beggars’ 
assemblies. And as for the use of biblical questions, 
it is said, ‘ Search the Scriptures!’ ” 

Dominik cried: 

** Who is it that have most abused the pure words 
of the Bible? The hundreds of thousands that have 
degraded them to the purposes of the powers that be 
and debased them to the knout, the thumb-screw, the 
stake —I mean all those low, lying, wily, egoistic, 
quarrelsome, gross, infamous, superficial, stupidly vain, 
puffed with false pride, cringing, arrogant, lustful, 
lecherous priests —of course not the good ones —I 
mean those that are considered good under the dirt of 
their canonical vestments. It is they, not we, who 
dishonour the word of God. Why should they need the 
Saviour? Don’t they enjoy cannibalistic ease on 
earth? Tell me what does one of your fat, well-fed 
priests know of the passion of the Son of man? Look 
at his face. He hasn’t even got a face. They have 
simply turned Christianity into a milch-cow. They 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 429 


do not know or do not need the Saviour, and the Say- 
iour does not know or does not need them. But these 
nine waitresses here who have been used up, who are 
despised by those priests and all the world, who are 
dishonoured and maltreated, rejected by all Christian 
society, who languish in misery and disease, they do 
indeed need Him. Oh, how the world disgusts me! 
How it disgusts me!” 

A nasty scene might have followed Dominik’s 
harangue if Elise Schuhbrich almost crying had not 
begged a long-haired, good-looking young pianist be- 
longing to the circle to go to the piano and play. He 
pounded away until the disputants desisted: from sheer 
inability to hear their own voices. 

But somebody had already informed the smeary 
publican of Dominik’s insults, and the waitresses al- 
most neglected their work discussing with each other 
how to prevent trouble from their cruel, unscrupulous, 
bestial exploiter, who had worked his way up from a 
procurer to the heights of his present position. They 
knew there was much to fear from his roughness, 
his revengefulness, and his readiness to resort to 
violence. 

The guests saw the man approaching slowly. He 
was undersized and short-necked, his hair parted with 
the precision of a wig. With his piercing black eyes 
and little waxed mustache, he might have been one 
of those managers of travelling circuses who give them- 
selves high-sounding Italian names. He was. still 
known as Black Charlie. Everybody knew it was for 
lack of complete evidence that he escaped the peni- 
tentiary or the gallows in a case in which a factory- 
owner had been found murdered under enigmatical 
circumstances. Among his women, in whose beds men 


430 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


of all ranks succeeded one another, where the place of 
a criminal still warm was taken by a police captain, or 
the place of a country gentleman still warm was taken 
by a safe-blower, not one for an instant believed in 
Black Charlie’s innocence. It was said he had collected 
the capital for setting up the Grove of the Muses solely 
by extortion. 

Everybody feared Black Charlie’s anger. Often a 
perfectly harmless word would offend him. His nature 
like that of many criminals was fiery, vain, sensual and 
avaricious. He was a dreaded idol of the purchasable 
girls, a position which he resolutely maintained. 

He planted himself squarely near the long table, and 
despite all the attempts of the waitresses to calm him, 
he began to cock his eye threateningly now at Quint, 
now at Dominik. That frightened Hedwig, and she 
asked Dr. Hiilsebusch to pay the bill and escort her 
back to the hospital. The pianist was now playing 
softly, and all the sensible people at Quint’s table were 
trying to bring the conversation back within rational 
bounds and cover up Dominik’s indiscretion. All sorts 
of erudite, religious, historical questions were bandied 
about. They spoke of Paracletus, the Church Fathers, 
hundreds of Christian sects beginning with the earliest 
Christian communities, the Essenes, Therapeute, the 
Nazarenes, Ebionites, Donatists, Montanists, and Chili- 
asts. 

“The Chiliasts especially,” said a young student, a 
friend of Dr. Hiilsebusch, “‘ with their expectation of 
the millennium keep working the worst mischief in the 
heads of the credulous.” 

Another added: 

““ So does the belief in Christ’s return. The strength 
of the Christian delusion despite a thousand years of 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 431 


disillusionment is the greatest obstacle to a healthy 
spiritual life.” 

Suddenly there was silence. Black Charlie, ominously 
pale, forced his way up to Dominik and planted him- 
self in front of him. Dominik jumped from his seat. 

“See here,” said Black Charlie, ‘did you say I was 
an exploiter? ” 

“J didn’t mean just you,” replied Dominik. The 
boy was not a little frightened. Black Charlie’s 
coarse rough voice, the whole man, disgusted him. All 
of a sudden the host had him by the throat, and the 
next instant Dominik found himself outside on the 
street. 

The professor and all of those seated at Quint’s 
table, with the exception of Weisslinder and a few 
others, arose. Their shouts of disapproval and indig- 
nation evoked a veritable salvo of approval from the 
other tables and rooms. 

* Dirty Socialists, Anarchists!” came from all over. 

Encouraged by this support Black Charlie was led 
to go still further in the defence of his honour. His 
anger redoubled when he saw all the guests rise from 
Quint’s table. 

“That fellow has been bothering me for some time,” 
he shouted. “ He is a student, and instead of study- 
ing he knocks around here and struck up relations with 
a waitress. I am sorry I didn’t throw him out at once. 
As for you”—he went up close to Quint whose ex- 
pression did not change —“ don’t you dare to come here 
again with your gang.”— He was silent. The whole 
place suddenly grew so still that the trill of a canary 
bird could be heard in another part of the house. 
After the lapse of a few anxious moments Quint was 
heard to ask: 


432 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“* Have I done you any wrong? ” 

In the silence that again followed the guests stand- 
ing around had time to observe the host’s distorted 
features and Emanuel’s calm loftiness. ‘They had a 
strange feeling that the man must have hated the poor 
Fool in Christ with a deadly hate born hundreds of 
years ago and kept alive until that keenly desired mo- 
ment. 

Unfortunately Bernhard Kurz now intervened, do- 
ing honour to his courage but precipitating violence. 

“Don’t touch this man,” he cried, “or you'll re- 
pent it.’ 

The host by way of answer planted a blow square in 
Quint’s face. 

Emanuel reeled. His left eye closed, and blood and 
water rolled down his swollen cheek. The host stood 
there probably seeing red, panting for breath, his mouth 
wide open. He had not yet rallied when Quint al- 
ready completely master of himself, bent his fearfully 
swollen face and kissed the ruffian’s cruel hand. 


CHAPTER XXVII 


Tuat night, after Quint had gone to bed in the Green 
Tree with wet compresses about his head, the disciples 
sat in council in the back room until morning. They 
could no longer hide from one another that their be- 
lief in Quint since they were living in the city had 
been dimmed by faint doubts, that, in fact, the even- 
ing’s event even more than his sermon in the field and 
the stoning had almost completely shattered their faith. 

In increasing perturbation they had followed Quint 
to the city, obedient, to be sure, but yet from day to 
day earnestly expecting a revelation. The unerring 
punctuality with which the great city each morning re- 
newed its activity with the rattle of waggons, the tramp- 
ing of men’s feet, the tumult, and the shrieking steam 
whistles as if there were no earthquakes, no blare of 
trumpets on a Judgment Day, no approaching end of 
the world, no Saviour and no Emanuel Quint — all this 
confused and disconcerted them. 

They felt that the city so novel to them was leavened 
with a powerful vital energy and bold resolute joy 
in life. Their narrow souls removed from their former 
peaceful surroundings underwent much ‘the same as 
would a small still pond if suddenly a broad raging 
mountain torrent were to plunge its way through. The 
serene mirror of their souls was roughened and broken 
up by whirling currents. 

_ Whispering timorously -in the light of the candle in 
the back room.they soon broke the ice, and confirmed 


433 


43,4 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


one another in their doubts as once they had confirmed 
one another in their faith Emanuel was now some- 
thing worse to them than if he had been exposed as 
merely an ordinary man. He became their enemy, 
their evil demon. Emanuel had never approved of 
hymns. 

“The fruitful simplicity of the teaching,” he had 
said one day to Dominik in the presence of a number 
of people, “ suffers from over-saturated feelings, which 
trickle away in boggy melancholy.” His opinion was 
now construed as a crime. ‘“ Repentance?” he had 
also said, ‘‘ What repentance? Do my words.” ‘This 
to Schubert who had come to him contrite, bemoaning 
his many secret sins. To Dibiez he had pointed out 
how the urge to the open confession of sins is nothing 
but a trap of Satan. “The devil sins as long as the 
devil is in you! May the devil forgive the devil his 
sins. But God, if He is in you, does not sin. ‘There- 
fore He cannot forgive sins. Nor can He do penance 
in your souls.” 

They asked one another mutely with their horror- 
stricken ‘eyes whether that was not heretical, a devilish 
doctrine. 

But the thing that gave the disciples the greatest 
offence was Emanuel’s intercourse with an increasing 
number of cultivated men. After the manner of 
sectarians like themselves they held culture and science 
to be the devil’s work, and nourished that hatred of 
better clothes, of finer appearance, and superior manners 
peculiar to the pariahs of society. Moreover, there 
was a residuum of faith left in them which made them 
fear they might be cheated by those educated men of 
their first place in the kingdom to come. Also they 
were jealous lovers of Quint and afraid of being re- 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 435 


placed in his affections. As a result they were violently 
excited against their master, and decided to take def- 
inite steps. 

** There is no help for it,” said Krezig the rag-picker. 
** We must tell him we want a definite answer.” 

However three or four days passed before they 
ventured to approach Quint. 

In the meantime Emanuel for the most part re- 
mained alone, refused to see the few people that still 
came to seek his advice in their distress, took long 
walks by himself and sometimes with Dominik, but only 
once with his disciples, who had to remain at a distance 
behind, and were honoured by scarcely a word. He 
seemed to be absorbed in cares and gloomy reflections. 


* % * * % * # * 


Quint and his disciples were taking a midday meal 
at a country inn about six miles from the city. At 
Quint’s suggestion the table was spread on a small 
dancing floor freshly strewn with sand giving upon the 
garden. The disciples while walking up and down un- 
der the chestnuts mutually encouraged one another in 
low whispers. Their voices grew louder, and Krezig 
had just prepared to put a preliminary question to 
Quint when to their great amazement, even to their 
joy, they saw Bohemian Joe enter the garden by a 
small back gate. 

After the storm of greetings was over, and Joe had 
given somewhat desultory answers to the questions with 
which he had been plied, the whispering began anew. 
Emanuel, giving him a penetrating look, had shaken 
hands with his stray sheep apparently returned to the 
fold. He could not fail to notice how his disciples 
moved farther and farther away from him in lively, 


436 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


gesticulating groups, until finally he was left to himself 
inside the garden, while the disciples strolled about out- 
side. 

He seated himself and listened to the bees buzzing, 
to a little spat among a clan of sparrows and to the 
whirr of the swallows’ wings. He breathed in the per- 
fume of mignonette and honeysuckle and watched a 
lady-bug crawl over his hand. Finally the lady-bug 
flew away, Schubert, the Scharfs, blacksmith John and 
the others appeared, and Quint suddenly felt again 
the old infinite compassion for these people who fol- 
lowed him with canine devotion. 

Bohemian Joe had helped them screw up their 
courage and return to the doubts he had expressed in 
the brickyard. Now in solemn assemblage they went 
up to their seducer and idol and besought his permis- 
sion to put a number of questions to him. He un- 
hesitatingly granted their request. 

‘Who art thou?” asked the first speaker, Krezig 
the rag-picker. 

“He that speaks to thee.” 

“Ts it true that thou hast been sent by God? 7 

‘Think ye that Satan will arm himself against his 
own kingdom? ” 

‘Thou hast said thou art Christ. Art thou He m 
truth? ” 

‘Thou hast said it, and thou hast spoken well.” 

Nearly all of them turned pale and talked at the same 
time. 

“What sign showest thou then, that we may see, 
and believe thee? What dost thou work? ” 

“Know ye not what is written in the Bible? It is 
a wicked generation which seeketh after a sign, which 
cannot discern the signs of the times, and there shall 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 437 


no sign be given unto it. Why search ye not in the 
Scriptures wherein ye yourselves think ye have eternal 
life? ”? 

But blacksmith John said: 

* At the Saviour’s word devils left men and went 
into a herd of swine. He raised the daughter of 
Jairus, the youth of Nain and Lazarus from the dead. 
And Lazarus had been lying in the grave four days. 
His corpse had even begun to stink. Jesus performed 
wonders. He made the blind see, the lame walk, and 
cleansed lepers.” 

** Fools,” said Emanuel. ‘‘ Ye who are yourselves a 
sign from God desire signs. That is the work of the 
enemy. He has made you blind to the signs of God 
everywhere in heaven and in earth. Would ye believe 
if I walked with dry feet over the Oder? It is written 
in the Bible that the Son of man fed five thousand men, 
women, and children with five barley loaves and two 
fishes; and twelve baskets full of the fragments that 
remained were gathered up. He walked with dry feet 
on the wind-tossed sea toward Capernaum. And yet 
they believed not in Him. For in the sixth chapter in 
the Gospel of St. John, verse thirty, immediately after 
these wonders are described, it is written, ‘'They said 
therefore unto Him, What sign showest thou then, 
that we may see, and believe thee? What dost thou 
work.’ ” 

The men cried: 

“We would believe, we would believe. Try it.” 

Quint continued: 

*“* Hearken. The tempter one day said to me, ‘ Com- 
mand that these stones be made bread.’ But the Son 
of man answered and said, ‘ Man shall not live by bread 
alone.’ The Son of man never fed five thousand men 


438 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


with five barley loaves and two fishes. Ye children of 
the devil, why tempt ye me? The Son of man has 
given you bread from heaven to eat, and has handed 
you the true bread from heaven, but you have thrown 
it into the mud.” 

“ Show us that bread,” they cried impatiently. 

With horror in his eyes as if he were unexpectedly 
beholding a ghost or an apparition, that eternal arch- 
enemy from the depths of time, Quint said: 

“1T, I, I am the bread of life.” 

There was an embarrassed pause. Finally Krezig 
summoned the courage to say he could not recall ever 
having received any bread from Quint, not to mention 
that they had never thrown bread in the mud. All, 
with the exception of the Scharfs, stuck to it that the 
Saviour had performed wonders upon others as well 
as upon himself — the third day after his crucifixion he 
had arisen from the dead. 

‘The Son of man said, ‘I am the Resurrection and 
the Life. But he never rose from a grave as a bodily 
corpse,” said Quint. ‘ He that hath the understanding 
let him understand. To whomsoever the Father has 
granted that he understand these words, he and the 
Father, he and the Son, he and the Ghost are one.” 

“ Lord,” said Martin Scharf, “ speak to us plainly. 
We are poor ignorant people and do not understand 
your puzzling words. If thou hast been sent by thy 
Father it cannot be thine earthly father, but the 
heavenly Father. Open the heavens to us for one 
single moment, and show us thy Father in His glory. 
We will fall down and worship thee.” 

“Martin,” exclaimed Quint, “ have I been so long 
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? How 
sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? He that hath 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 439 


seen me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that 
I am in the Father and the Father in me? ” 

“Show us the smallest sign and we will believe in 
thee. Show us the smallest wonder and we will fall 
. down and worship thee.” 

“‘ Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed,” replied Quint. ‘ And he that seeth me, 
seeth not me but Him that sent me. But whosoever 
seeth not Him that sent me, seeth not me. Whosoever 
seeth Him that sent me, worshippeth none other but the 
Father and none other than the Son; and his prayer 
is the strength of truth and the Ghost. Satan is a 
doer of violence, but the Father is no doer of violence. 
And since ye still worship and lie in the dust before 
doers of violence, before the kings that are children 
of Satan and before Satan himself, ye shall not wor- 
ship the Father. Either the Father or the enemy is 
in you and if the Father is in you, He knoweth what ye 
have need of in eternity.” 

Now Anton Scharf raged in precipitate embarrass- 
ment. 

** We believed and we followed you. We converted 
what we had into cash, and many of us neglected our 
work and our home. Day by day we hoped, trusting 
firmly in a revelation. Why did you bring us to the 
city? Why did we have to lose our money? Why did 
we descend into those pits of vice? Why do you sur- 
round yourself with the learned and the aristocratic? 
Why did you kiss the hand of that ruffian who struck 
you instead of calling down the fires from heaven and 
burning him and destroying all the dens of lewdness? ” 

“Know ye not,” said Emanuel Quint, “of whose 
spirit I am the child?” It was astonishing how the 
carpenter’s son driven to bay by those disillusioned men 


440 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


nevertheless could not doff his Messiah robe. “ It is 
true ye have given me your earthly bread to eat, and 
in return I have given you neither gold nor earthly 
bread. Curse me, deny me. And if ye hear my 
words, but do not believe them and reject them, I 
will not judge you. I came not to judge the world 
but to save the world. I have neither silver nor gold nor 
bread to bequeath, but peace I leave with you, my 
peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give 
I unto you, and not as ye have given unto me. But 
whosoever taketh what I’ give, let him take and have 
my peace.” 

It is readily conceivable that the faith of the peasants 
wavering, indeed almost completely destroyed, was not 
strengthened by Quint’s words. | 

“Give us a sign,” they all cried together. “ Give 
us ever so slight a sign that we may know that thou 
art really sent by God.” 

Emanuel arose from his chair and said: 

“Q ye of little faith, the Son of man is no wonder- 
worker, that is, no doer of violence. The wonder- 
worker is a doer of violence. Behold, God’s justice 
envelopes you like a garment to protect you from the 
cold. It is like a roof over your heads to protect you 
from rain, hail, snow, and falling rocks. God’s justice 
is like a firm house. It causes you to walk upright 
and preserves you against dizziness and madness. 'The 
wonder-worker is the doer of violence. The enemy 
alone will break down the walls of God’s justice and 
tear away the dams before the flood, the flood in 
which ye shall all drown. The enemy alone, I tell you, 
will do wonders. ‘The Son of man is no doer of won- 
ders, therefore no doer of violence, but a doer of good. 


Should He destroy the beneficence of God’s justice? 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 441 


Would ye arm the Son against the Father, when the 
Father carries the Son in His heart? 

“The prince of this world is a doer of violence. 
But God is no doer of violence. If ye have eyes to 
see and ears to hear, ye would hear a wailing and 
gnashing of teeth throughout the thousands of years 
in the hell of this world, the hell of the doers of vio- 
lence. ‘The doers of violence hate me because I bring 
peace. But because I bring peace, they hate me with- 
out cause. Ye should love me and not reject me like 
the prince of this world, for I love you. Become chil- 
dren of God. 

“TI say to you, kindle your light at the light while 
the light is with you. Yet a little while is the light 
with you, then the old darkness will come upon you 
again. While ye have light believe in the lhght that 
ye may be the children of light.” 

All this made not the slightest impression on Quint’s 
disciples. Too long had their hopes been deferred, too 
often their expectation and curiosity deceived. 

“Speak plainly. If thou really art what thou say- 
est thou art, the king of the New Jerusalem, the king 
of the millennium, thou canst prove it to us by one 
word, by one wave of thine hand.” 

‘“‘ Destroy those churches the steeples of which you see 
there in the distance,” said Quint smiling, “‘ and within 
two days I will erect a new church which will cause 
you to think of the old churches with horror.” 

“How can we destroy the churches? ” cried his dis- 
ciples. 

‘There it is,’ Emanuel Quint concluded turning 
serious again. 

These words which they misunderstood made an im- 
pression on the eight disciples. 


442 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“Tell us at least,?? cried Schubert, “ what is all this 
about the mystery of the kingdom of God that you 
keep from us? ” 

“ And what do you mean?” asked blacksmith John. 
‘‘ We have sacrificed all this and in return darkness shall 
descend upon us, as you say?” 

Emanuel in despair clasped his head in both hands 
and looked up to heaven. 

“It is not in my power,” he said, “to enlighten 
you. I will beseech my Father to clarify your hearts. 
But if ever ye shall be converted and see as ye now 
walk in darkness, ye shall recollect and will know and 
understand that which I have said unto you.” 

“ Shall we die or shall we that have followed thee 
behold the glory of God and the New Jerusalem with 
our bodily eyes?” some asked. 

“ Have I not said to you again and again, Except 
ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of heaven? 
And have ye been born again? Have ye, hallowed by 
the Ghost, become holy men of God? For your sakes 
I have hallowed myself through the Ghost and the 
truth, that ye also might be sanctified through the 
Ghost and the truth. But ye have not been sanctified, 
and have not sanctified yourselves. ‘Therefore ye are 
servants of the world. But I am no servant of the 
world. And I am no longer in the world while I speak 
with you who are naught else than children of the 
world. Verily, ye have served the Son of man, but ye 
have served him for the sake of the enemy. Ye have 
served him for the sake of the prince of this world. But 
the Son of man has served you for God’s sake. For 
I am come not to rule, but to serve. JI am come into 
the world to bear testimony to the Spirit of truth. 
But only he that is the Spirit of truth hears my voice. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 443 


Eyes have ye, but ye see not; ears have ye, but ye 
hear not. That is why my words do not take root in 
you.” 

“Jt isn’t true,” they raged. “ His words did take 
root in us—only too firmly. Each of us served him 
for God’s sake, not for the devil’s sake.” 

“Perhaps without knowing we served you for the 
devi’s sake—perhaps you yourself are the anti- 
Christ? ” cried Krezig. 

‘© He is a fool, he is a cheat, he is a crazy loafer. 
He has made paupers of us,” called Bohemian Joe 
from the background. Bohemian Joe was thin and 
greatly changed. 

‘6 He that serveth me,” resounded Emanuel’s firm 
voice, “serveth not me, but Him which sent me. I 
repeat, No one hath a portion in the Son of man ex- 
cept he be born again of the Father. That which 
is born in the flesh is flesh; and that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit. But God was not born of the 
flesh. God is spirit. The first man was made in the 
natural life, and the last man, the Son of man, was 
made in the spiritual life.” 

Thus Quint spoke, spreading before them in a com- 
prehensive, urgent whole all the scattered bits that he 
had ever taught them. But they pressed him hard and 
charged him with having kept them in suspense, and 
having held them off with evasions, with having spoken 
to them in nothing but ambiguous parables. And they 
kept demanding of him, as it were, a certificate of 
identity from God. 

If God were really his Father, it must be an easy 
thing for him, they said, to let them see something of 
His glory. 

‘¢ Show us the Father,” they cried. 


4.44 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Emanuel wrung his hands. 

“Are ye yet without understanding?” he sighed. 
“ Have I not said unto you, He that hath seen me, 
hath seen the Father? Have I been so long time with 
you and yet ye know me not? Know ye not that the 
Father is in me? The Father is spirit, and nobody 
can see the Father except he that is of the Father. 
Nobody cometh to me except the Father draweth him 
to me. Nobody seeth the Father except he hath been 
enlightened by the Father. Should I show a blind man 
the Father, pointing with, a bodily finger? ‘The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst thou tell whence it cometh, and 
whither it goeth? ” 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


Some villagers were peeping over the garden fence. 
They did not know what to make of the queer men 
who one minute were whispering among themselves and 
the next minute were breaking out into a storm of ex- 
citement. All of a sudden weaver Schubert was sum- 
moned by the host to the front door, where he found 
his daughter Martha pale and breathless. 

“The police have made a search in Quint’s room in 
the Green Tree. There is a big crowd outside yelling 
for him. ‘They say he is a murderer. He must make 
his escape. He mustn’t come back to the city, or 
they’ll kill him.” 

While Schubert stood outside talking with his daugh- 
ter, Emanuel continued his speech in the garden. 

“‘ Strive not, dear children. Love one another. Do 
not bicker with me who love you and have loved you 
from eternity. Hath any man greater love than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his enemies? Verily, 
the time will come and hath come when you will leave 
me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is with 
me. The hour will come and hath come when ye shall 
be scattered, each going his own way, and because of 
the love that I have borne you, will swear at me and 
curse and deny me. Come, let us sit down and eat. 
For the hour cometh, and now is, when I must take leave 
of you and the world. The world killeth and stoneth 
the prophets that were sent to gather together the 
children of the world. Farewell! Let us pass this last 

445 


446 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


hour together in peace. Behold, even as I speak to 
you I am no longer in the world. But ye are in the 
world. Have no fear. The world cannot hate you: 
but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works 
thereof are evil. Oh, what I could say to you! But 
your weak souls cannot bear it.” 

The words of the Fool in Christ overflowed with such 
a wealth of pure goodness and tenderness that for an 
instant the mutiny was quelled. Quint took Anton 
Scharf’s hand in his and laid his free arm about black- 
smith John’s shoulder. Tears of emotion ran down the 
strong man’s rough, hairy cheeks. 

Emanuel now led the way around the gay, fragrant, 
box-bordered flower-bed, and seated himself at the table 
which the innkeeper and his wife had just finished set- 
ting. 


* * * * * * * * 


For some reason Bohemian Joe was attracted to the 
front door to hear what the news was that Martha was 
giving Schubert. His manner on hearing the news 
was strange. He tried in vain to make some comment. 

The three had just entered the house again when 
Dominik and Elise came running up. They had heard 
of a man and wife who had appeared at the Green 
Tree with a detective. It seemed that a young girl had 
disappeared several days before, and strange to say 
her parents had come to Quint for inf ormation regard- 
ing her whereabouts. 

But the report that Dominik and Elise brought 
could not have been as recent as Martha’s, according 
to which the girl had been murdered. A few mo- 
ments later Therese Katzmarek came to confirm both 
reports. She was breathless with a mad race across 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 4AT 


the fields of three quarters of an hour, and fell ex- 
hausted on the stone bench outside the house. 

She had gone to the factory that day as usual and 
while working at her machine she heard the girls about 
her discussing the police report of a horrible murder. 
They said a girl of about fifteen apparently of the 
better classes had been found lying dead under the 
alders near a brook not far from the suburbs of 
Breslau. The corpse showed no mutilation, but un- 
doubtedly there had been a murder under the foulest 
circumstances. 

All of them, Therese Katzmarek, Dominik and Elise 
Schuhbrich, Schubert and his daughter, and Bohemian 
Joe also, instantly realised that the suspicion had fallen 
upon their master. But they knew that their master 
could not have been the murderer. Since there was 
no imminent danger of his being pursued they decided 
to keep the matter from Quint for the present. It was 
Dominik who had insisted upon this action and who 
also insisted that nobody but Emanuel was to tell those 
who did not yet know. 

The meal in the garden had already begun when the 
newcomers entered. They only added to the feeling of 
constraint that had prevailed from the beginning. 
Quint exchanged cordial greetings with Dominik and 
Elise Schuhbrich, who looked like a thoroughbred lady 
in her light summer dress. There was something un- 
mistakably festive and solemn in the manner of the 
two lovers. They seemed to be filled with both a deep 
seriousness and a great happiness. Upon Quint also, 
but upon none of the others, there hovered the same 
quiet, serious festivity alternating with a mysterious 
joy. Dominik seated himself at Quint’s left, Elise 
Schuhbrich at his right. 


448 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


They had not been at the meal long when the 
first rumbling of distant thunder was heard. 

Now in truth the disciples seemed to be members of 
a fellowship of the mystery. The one who carried the 
gravest mystery within him and over whom another 
mystery was gathering like a dark cloud, the Fool in 
Christ, was the frankest and freest of the whole com- 
pany. Nor did Dominik and Elise betray by their 
manner that a fateful event was impending over them, 
an event which they were bringing on themselves of 
their own volition. ‘The rest of the company looked at 
one another with unsteady eyes, fearfully, timidly, like 
condemned men. They did not brighten up until Dom- 
inik had wine brought in at Elise Schuhbrich’s expense. 

Suddenly Dominik with a radiant look in his face 
rose from his chair, held up a glass of wine and said: 

“The world is evil, the world rests on crime, and 
what men call virtue is almost always nothing but 
their idle comfort. The world is shaped by the hang- 
men and is supported by the gallows and the cross. 
It was Caiaphas who advised the Jews, that it was 
expedient that one man should die for the people. It 
is not true that they sang Hallelujah. I have listened 
day and night, for months, for years. But it was 
like a million-voiced storm which broke upon me on 
all sides, ‘Crucify! Crucify!? There is estrange- 
ment between man and man. I myself was an alien in 
the home of my parents. I do not understand their 
life and they do not understand that life which drew 
me with all the strength of my soul. I would give 
up everything else, but not the untainted possession 
of my soul, to live comfortably among the children of 
the world. I have been thrust into prison, and hard- 
hearted wardens have tried to mutilate my soul. They 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 449 


laid rude hands upon me. ‘They wanted to force me 
to crawl in the vile slime of their own miserable exist- 
ence. I have wings and a sense of honour. They 
have neither wings nor a sense of honour. They are 
pariahs before God and the powers that be. Pariahs 
were my teachers. They tried to clip my wings and turn 
me into a pariah before God and men. I have had 
wicked, cold-blooded, indifferent, malicious, evil, cor- 
rupt, low, godless teachers before I had this sublime 
teacher who is sitting beside me here.” He spoke with 
naive young enthusiasm. “This man has taught me 
the free use of life to the honour of God, the Father 
in me. This man has disclosed the mystery of liberty 
to me and to my love, who were languishing in slav- 
ery. The whole world calls us visionaries. If only 
the world were full of such visionaries! Every man 
aglow with great human feelings is a visionary, an 
extravagant enthusiast, to the Philistine in his flat stale 
feelings. We are neither draught horses nor cab 
horses nor automata who work in offices nor brakemen 
on railways, we are not practical nor do we fall un- 
der the heading of useful articles. The Philistines call 
us idle enthusiasts. And yet the little that makes life 
possible and bearable to all has been wrested by en- 
thusiasm and the intellect. In their opinion we are not 
efficient. But I do not hesitate when I have to decide 
between efficiency in the world’s sense and efficiency 
in God’s sense. Thou, master, hast taught me, un- 
hampered by men’s chains or the fear of men, to be 
free in God, and look in gay disdain upon the world 
and death. ‘Therefore I will use my wings, and she 
whom I love will fly with me.” 

He drank the glass of wine. Quint’s disciples did 
not understand him. But Quint himself and Elise 


450 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Schuhbrich responded to the toast, evidently compre- 
hending. 

Schwabe, who had drunk a bit, now jumped up. 
It was the first occasion in a long time that he was 
moved to utterance. He spoke of how he had first 
met Emanuel in the hut where the old woman was dy- 
ing and had then followed him faithfully on his way; 
what hopes Quint had fostered in him, and how all 
of them for the sake of those hopes had done their 
best. He spoke with growing passion, and following 
the suggestions of his heated brain he departed from 
the truth and maintained that Quint had comforted 
them from week to week, from month to month with 
the fulfillment of their hopes and his promise — with 
nothing less than the revelation of his heavenly glory. 
They had waited and waited, but nothing happened. 

“Do you think,” Dominik cried indignantly, “ that 
this man of God has come into the world just to re- 
move the cataracts from the eyes of the eight of you? ” 

The Valley Brethren one and all began to rage and 
fume as if a long pent-up torrent of wrath, anxiety, 
disillusionment and despair had broken down the dam 
and were flooding the land. Like a pack of hounds 
which has been on a blood-scent for hours and has 
been duped of its prey, they yelped and barked and 
howled. Krezig the rag-picker was least able to con- 
tain his fury. It was as if they had all been sobered 
simultaneously and then had been seized with a new 
form of madness. To all appearances they were pass- 
ing a dreadful judgment upon their master of old as 
upon a common cheat. 

“‘He has blasphemed against God, he has dishon- 
oured the Scriptures, he has desecrated churches, he 
has broken communion cups,” they cried. 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 451 


Who knows but that the indignation of his disciples 
might have ended in the maltreatment of Quint, Dom- 
inik, and Elise Schuhbrich, had not a terrific peal of 
thunder, which no flash preceded, come down at the 
very moment that the false prophet first attempted to 
calm them with a commanding gesture. Intense 
silence fell, while outside a light rain began to patter. 

“May God forgive you, for ye know not what ye 
do,” said Quint, and in the silence that continued he 
took up a basin of water and quietly went about per- 
forming a ceremony which is customary in many places 
among both Greek and Roman Catholics, the so-called 
washing of the feet. The superstitious disciples had 
been intimidated by the thunder-clap and wavered in their 
disbelief. They were held in a sort of gruesome spell, 
which turned into helplessness and shamefacedness at 
the master’s treatment of them. It was evident that the 
peculiar power of his personality was again at work. 

When it came to Bohemian Joe’s turn, he stared at 
Emanuel with frightful eyes, and when the first drop 
of water touched his feet he ran away in horror as if 
molten lead had dropped on him. 

These were Emanuel’s last words when he ended the 
traditional ceremony: 

“Ye called me master and lord. If I then whom 
ye called lord and master have so debased myself, the 
lords, masters and higher powers of this world ought 
to debase themselves before one another. So ought 
ye also to debase yourselves before one another. For 
I say unto you, the servant is no less than his lord, 
and the lord is no greater than his servant. And he 
that is least in the world will see the eternal day of the 
kingdom of God arise within him. But he that is the 
most powerful im the world, his sun will set.” 


CHAPTER XXIX 


Emanvex walked out into the garden which was steam- 
ing in the warm spring rain. After Dominik and the 
others settled the account in the inn they followed him. 
The entire company now left the place and falling 
into their usual pace started off, but not in the direc- 
tion of Breslau. ! 

When they had passed the village limits Quint began 
to stride so rapidly that all except Dominik were left 
behind. Elise Schuhbrich walked by herself in order 
not to disturb Dominik in the disclosure he had to make 
to Quint. The larks were singing overhead. 

“Men do not put new wine into old bottles, else the 
bottles break and the wine runneth out. What I did 
and said in the presence of those men, I did as the 
Son of man. If they did not understand what I did 
and said as the Son of man, how could they hope to 
understand if I had spoken to them as the Son of God? 
Their flesh is willing, but their spirit is weak. I love 
you and I know what you intend to do. Behold, I am 
new and young in God, but in the world I am weary. 
I have spoken to deaf ears, and the noise of the world 
is like a sea which drowneth the voice of the ship- 
wrecked sailor. I am strange to the world, and the 
world is strange to me. 

“ My life in this world is useless, but my life in 
God is not useless. I have awaited the call which is 
to go from the Father to the Son of man that he 
may accomplish His mission. Again and again | have 

452 


eye 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 453 


asked, When shall I shed my blood? When shall I 
pour forth my strong love upon the eternal flame of 
hate in this world? I have asked, ‘Now? Now?’ 
Yet was my sacrifice not accepted. 

** God will be with thee. For whithersoever thou go- 
est the yearning for God impels thee. But I grieve 
for them that I love and leave in suspense. But all 
is in vain. My words have no effect on them. They 
cling to violence, superstition, and servile worship of 
God.” 

He ceased. ‘And Dominik began, at first cautiously, 
then more definitely, to tell what had happened at the 
Green Tree. Emanuel called Martha Schubert and 
Therese Katzmarek, from whose accounts it probably 
became clear to him that the missing or murdered girl 
was Ruth Heidebrand, and that it was her parents who 
had been seeking him at the Green Tree. 

Contrary to the agreement Schubert had told the 
disciples of the suspicion against Quint and how the 
mob had surrounded the Green Tree clamouring for 
revenge. And when Emanuel turned to beckon to 
them, he saw some men at a great distance running 

‘,away across the fields. He realised that beside Dom- 
inik and the three women and Martin and Anton 
Scharf, none had remained with him. Anton and Mar- 
tin stepped up to Quint, whose face bore an expression 
of goodness at once bitter and compassionate, while 
his eyes followed the fleeing disciples full of sorrow. 

“What do you think?” he said to the Scharfs. 
“ Can you believe that I am guilty of what the enemies 
charge me with?” But the Scharfs seemed to be out 
of their wits with terror. They made no answer. 
Quint smiled a sad, fatherly smile, and put an arm 
about each, clasped them to him several times and cried, 


454 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


“What is the matter with you?” There was a tinge 
of pathetic gaiety in his voice. “To have had to waste 
so much love, fidelity, faith, hope and energy upon a 
Fool in Christ!” 

“ Run away, Emanuel, run away!” was all they could 
say. 

“ Will you not take up your cross likewise and fol- 
low after me?” Quint asked. They trembled and did 
not reply.. He withdrew his arms from them and turn- 
ing to Dominik, said, “ He that is not for me is against 
me.” And turning back again to the brothers, he 
said finally, “‘ Get ye hence! Go, and leave me alone!” 

But still the two men could not come to a decision, 
though they saw in Emanuel nothing but the prince of 
hell, the anti-Christ, who instead of leading them to 
the gates of heaven had enticed them to the brink of 
hell. After following Quint about a quarter of an 
hour more the distance between them widened, and later, 
when Quint looked back, he could see no traces of those 
his first and last disciples. 


* * * * * * * * 


At a milestone between two poplars not far from the 
wall of an estate Quint took leave of Dominik and 
Elise, kissing Dominik and shaking hands with Elise. 
The girl did not want to part from Quint. 

“He wishes it to be so,” said Dominik, ‘and we 
must obey the Son of God.” 

“ Farewell,” said Quint, “‘ and yet the time will come 
when this old, glorious earth dishonoured by servile, 
creeping things will be inhabited by sons and daugh- 
ters of God.” 

Emanuel’s face now darkened with a severe expres- 
sion, and his commanding words frightened off Therese 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 455 


Katzmarek and Martha Schubert, who fell behind and 
stole after him at a distance. 

Emanuel straightened his shoulders and held his head 
defiantly aloft as never before. He faced about reso- 
lutely as if drawn by something long desired, and 
walked toward the city where his severest fate awaited 
him. ‘There was a vast mysterious triumph in him, as 
he impatiently hurried back to Breslau. 

** Ye lukewarm in the land,” a voice said within him, 
**know ye not that the Holy Ghost will come with a 
rushing and a roaring?”? And when he entered the 
streets, ‘“* Knemies, enemies, wherever I look. I am 
worthy to be a victim.” 

In short, he was filled with satisfaction at the impo- 
tence of the world when his own soul was crying for 
tortures and martyrdom. 

As he was passing the gate of a beautiful garden 
he was unexpectedly held up by Bernhard Kurz and 
Hedwig Krause. Before he knew how, they had led 
him through the gate into the garden up to a tea table 
under a mighty beech tree, and had introduced him to 
a spectacled gentleman and a well-dressed, middle-aged 
lady — Dr. and Mrs. Mendel— who now had their 
wish realised to become acquainted with the new Mes- 
siah. But there was no trace of a Messiah delusion 
or of fanaticism in the man who. stood there easily, 
looking at the green lawn, the guinea hens, the rose 
hedges, and the flaming flower beds. Within at the 
utmost twenty minutes a garden idyll was compressed 
which the little circle often spoke of later. There was 
a little jackdaw with clipped wings which hopped about 
Quint eyeing him most curiously. Quint took some tea, 
and Dr. Mendel told him good-humouredly that Hedwig 
Krause was the best nurse in his hospital. It was 


456 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


evident that the Mendels and still more Bernhard Kurz 
liked to have Hedwig in their home. Later Bernhard 
and Hedwig were married. 

Mrs. Mendel showed Quint over her house, pointing 
to the fine paintings on her walls and various objects 
in her large collection. On returning to the garden 
she took with her a tiny casket of gold filigree which 
sparkled in the sun. When she pressed a spring a 
gay little bird about the size of a pea popped out to 
the surface and bowing to the right and the left began 
to trill melodiously. When its song was done it van- 
ished with lightning rapidity, and the gold lid snapped 
shut. The little marvel gave Quint transports of de- 
light. 

Often Bernhard Kurz and Hedwig Krause spoke of 
the impression the casket had made upon Quint and 
the reason it probably stirred him so. He made the 
bird appear again and again and sing its blithe song. 
He seemed to be listening with peculiar tensity, as if 
the casket and the song concealed something of the 
profoundest mystery. 


CHAPTER XXX 


Aut of a sudden Quint took abrupt leave, and con- 
tinued on his way to the Green Tree. He managed to 
pass unrecognised through the mob surrounding the 
inn. When he entered, he was immediately arrested 
and led back through the mob, who shook their fists 
at him, and struck him and spat upon him, because 
they thought he was one of those ravening wolves that 
come in sheep’s clothing, wearing the mask of pious 
hypocrisy. They took him to be the unnatural mur- 
derer of Ruth Heidebrand. 

At the detective bureau Emanuel was confronted 
with Ruth’s parents, who of course immediately recog- 
mised their former Jodger. They looked completely 
broken down, and the sight of their anguish stirred 
Quint to the depths of his soul, though there was no 
trace of emotion on his serene, pallid face. As he did 
not answer any of their questions, his silence was of 
course construed against him. 

All the neighbours in and about Miltzsch had been 
relieved as of a great weight when the Fool of the 
Gurau Lady disappeared from the district immediately 
after his sermon in the field. Some said his mother had 
taken him home, others that a Methodist minister had 
carried him off to America where religious enthusiasts 
like Quint were held in high esteem. Within a few 
weeks the talk about Quint died down except occasion- 
ally among the Heidebrands and the Krauses. 

457 


458 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


Ruth returned to her parents’ home. Her manner 
continued to be constrained and veiled, and greatly 
troubled her parents. Impenetrable in her reserve 
she dashed every attempt of Hans Beleites to restore 
their intercourse to its old intimate footing, and the 
boy’s passion increased the more dreamy and mysterious 
the air she wore. 

One morning they found her room empty, her bed 
untouched. They could discover no trace of her any- 
where about Miltzsch, in the park, the barn, the stables, 
or the lofts. 

Ruth had been fond of solitude and reading undis- 
turbed for half a day at a time in out-of-the-way 
places. One of her favourite spots was on a beam 
under the roof of a wheat granary. There she would 
sit with her legs crossed, reading by a narrow ray of 
light coming through a loop-hole in the roof a gilt- 
edged New Testament illuminated with large pious- 
looking initials, which Pastor Beleites had given her at 
her confirmation. Her parents knew most of her fa- 
vourite haunts and hunted for her in all of them, but 
in vain. 

Since the worst that was possible —the girl’s death 
—— was in everybody’s mind, it naturally occurred to 
them that she might have gone to sleep on the beam, 
fallen into the wheat, which was thirty yards deep, slid 
down among the spaces between the sheaves, and been 
covered up. They had the men and maid servants lift 
away thousands of sheaves. It occurred to them that 
she might have gone out at night in the boat, as she 
occasionally did, to feed the swans, and been upset in 
the deeper part of the lake, or in a fit of melancholy 
she might have committed suicide; and they had the lake 
dragged. The woods, too, were searched because Ruth 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 4.59 


sometimes read for hours seated on the branch of a 
tree. 

Finally everybody hit upon Quint. It was consid- 
ered probable that Ruth in her enthusiasm had left 
home to seek her idol. 

Unfortunately, as usually happens in such cases, 
they did not seize the one circumstance that might have 
led to Ruth’s discovery and rescue. A number of weeks 
previously a horribly ugly fellow had presented himself 
at the office of the Miltzsch estate and been engaged 
as a workman. ‘They should have recognised him, be- 
cause it was the same man that had once come to the 
gardener’s house to bring Quint news, and one of the 
men that they had noticed near Quint on the day of 
the great scandal. But since he was a quiet, efficient 
workman with nothing against him but his conspicuous 
ugliness, and since the scandal had ceased to be dis- 
cussed, no notice was taken of him. 

Ruth’s flight occurred on a Sunday morning, and it 
did not strike anyone that the ugly little gnome, who had 
received his week’s pay on Saturday evening, like the 
rest of the workmen, did not show up again the follow- 
ing Monday. There was always a change of workmen 
going on, three or four sometimes taking the place 
of one that had left. If only Bohemian Joe’s absence 
on Monday morning had been connected with Ruth’s 
disappearance, they would probably have got on 
his traces the very same day, and, as appeared later, 
would probably have found Ruth still alive. Thus they 
knew nothing of him or Ruth or Emanuel Quint when 
a telegram came announcing the murder of a girl near 
Breslau. All doubts gave way to horrid, cold cer- 
tainty. | | 

It was of course in a state bordering on madness that 


460 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


the parents and Hans Beleites read the telegram which 
left no doubt as to the girl’s identity. It gave a de- 
tailed description of her clothing — black buttoned 
boots, brown stockings, white garters, a green woollen 
jacket and short skirt, brown. gloves, and a brown hat. 
Even her under-garments were described. Her age was 
given as between fourteen and seventeen, and her figure 
as slim and of medium height.’ Lying near her corpse 
a New Testament had been found with an inscription 
in it stating it was the gift of a pastor Beleites to a 
Ruth Heidebrand. 

Each word in the telegram was like a fearful iron 
hammer-blow. One of the garments mentioned was a 
collar of squirrel. Mrs. Heidebrand rushed upstairs 
to Ruth’s wardrobe. ‘The collar was gone. ‘The mother 
saw the child’s joy on her eleventh birthday when the 
modest little fur collar lay with the other presents on 
the table, among the eleven lighted candles and the so- 
called lamp of life. Now that lamp of life and all 
the candles had been extinguished forever. 

Since Emanuel Cire silent to all the questions 
the Heidebrands asked him, the suspicion was confirmed 
that even if he himself was not the murderer he was at 
any rate somehow connected with the murder. It was 
heart-rending to see Mrs. Heidebrand ask her daughter 
back, of Quint in a voice running the gamut of despair 
‘and agonised rage. The father was quiet and com- 
posed. He looked upon this fearful visitation, he said, 
as a merited punishment from heaven. 


* * # * * * * * 
Emanuel was sent to the house of detention where he 


_was given a bath and put into a cell by himself. The 
judge who had charge of the investigation of the case 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 461 


could not even get him to tell his name, his birthday, 
and the place where he was born. 

“If you don’t speak,” said the judge, “ you can do 
yourself great harm in case you are innocent.” 

Had Emanuel mentioned the name of only one of his 
disciples, it would have hastened the investigation. The 
more accurately and fully he would have made his 
statements the sooner would his innocence have been 
proved. But it almost seemed as if he wished to be 
declared guilty. 

Since Emanuel refused to employ a lawyer, an as- 
sistant district attorney took up his defence. But even 
the district attorney could not get anything out of 
Quint. Quint, it is true, did not state he was guilty. 
Yet he said nothing to the contrary. The public 
prosecutor believed in his guilt. He cross-examined a 
number of witnesses and succeeded in throwing some 
light on Emanuel’s curious career. He questioned the 
Scharfs, the Hassenpflugs, Kurowski, Brother Nathan- 
iel Schwarz, miller Straube, Pastor Schimmelmann and 
Pastor Schuch. He gathered a great deal of evidence 
that was not very favourable to Quint. 

His opinion of Quint summed up was this: 

The prisoner came into the world out of wedlock. 
His mother did not say who his father was. It is 
known that the great majority of illegitimate children 
go to ruin in various ways, especially through crime. 
His first tendency to crime was ‘shown in his laziness. 
Quint’s step-father and brother and even his mother 
confirmed the fact of his unwillingness to work. The 
idler not caring to remain at home, probably because 
he was afraid of being kept at work, began to tramp 
the country. But tramping, too, became distasteful to 
him, and instigated perhaps by bad company he said 


462 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


to himself that he would exploit the credulous simplicity 
of the people by some hardy imposture. He succeeded 
beyond his own expectations and cynically foisted him- 
self on the Scharf brothers, living upon them like a 
parasite. By a system of frauds he turned the credu- 
lous weavers to his own purposes, and was able by and 
by to cheat them of all their earnings. He was ar- 
rested and taken back to his own village. In some way 
or other he had acquired the reputation of a healer. 
Born charlatans when exposed are never at a loss for 
new means of deception. He went still further. In 
his cynicism he did not hesitate to profane what was 
holiest. He announced himself as a wonder-worker, an 
apostle, even Christ come back to earth again, thereby 
taking rank, though in a narrower sphere, with the 
greatest impostors of all times. But the healthy spirit 
in his native village was revolted, and he had to pay 
a penalty which unfortunately was not severe enough. 
A lady held in general esteem now took his part in 
a Christian spirit, and many fine, respectable persons 
were long-suffering in their efforts to lead him back to 
a modest, decent existence. It was in vain that so much 
love was expended upon him in Miltzsch, In the mean- 
time the natural tendencies of this resolute parvenu — 
that is what he was in those days — found further sup- 
port in Socialistic, Anarchistic and Nihilistic ideas. By 
way of thanks for benefits received this peasant hypo- 
crite seduced the daughter of his benefactors (sic! To 
make out the strongest case possible for himself the 
attorney did not hesitate to besmirch the dead girl’s 
character) whom he got in his power in his usual way 
by playing upon her childish credulity and lack of 
judgment. snd ihe, | 
It was from the latter part of Quint’s career that the 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 463 


prosecuting attorney concluded he was a_ danger- 
ous character. He had carefully gathered a number 
of statements of an Anarchistic nature which he had 
made in the presence of a great many witnesses. The 
attorney had them grouped under the headings: 

Against the monarchy. 

Against religion. 

Against the church. 

Against the state. 

Quint had declared himself in favour of free love, 
and most decidedly against private property, all the 
time however under the cloak of Christianity, which 
only aggravated the offence. 

Among those examined had been the publicans of the 
Green Tree and the Grove of the Muses. It was Black 
Charlie’s deposition that was most incriminating. The 
feeling of even this man, who was not exactly a model 
Christian, had revolted against the blasphemies of the 
prisoner, as the prosecuting attorney said. 

Neither the investigating judge nor the attorney 
who was defending Quint was convinced of Emanuel’s 
guilt, although a letter had been found over Ruth’s 
heart signed, “ Emanuel Quint,” in which in bombastic, 
extravagant phrases with some drivel about the ap- 
proach of the New Jerusalem the girl was invited to 
come to Breslau to Quint. The prosecutor admitted 
that the letter had probably not been written by the 
prisoner, since the handwriting was awkward and did 
not resemble the specimens of Quint’s handwriting in 
his file; but he was of the opinion that Quint had dic- 
tated it, and he considered it characteristic of Quint’s 
deep-seated perversity — apart from the murder, which 
may have been the result only of fortuitous circum- 
stances — that he had the wretched courage to lure the 


464 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


well-bred child to those dens of vice, which in the city 
had been the element of his existence. 

The letter was shown to Quint. His response as 
usual was silence. One day Salo Glaser, Dr. Mendel 
and Bernhard Kurz offered themselves as witnesses to 
testify that they did not think Emanuel Quint capable 
of murder. Salo Glaser had consented to do this al- 
though his son under Quint’s influence had completely 
lost his head that evening in the Grove of the Muses. 
The day after, he had received a lengthy letter from 
Benjamin in which the boy formally renounced his vast 
inheritance. Salo Glaser immediately travelled to Bres- 
lau and found that his son in his fit of renunciation had 
already given away half the contents of his prettily 
furnished apartment. The father had laughed and had 
bundled Benjamin off with one of his friends, a young 
physician, to the Hague and later to Scandinavia hold- 
ing the physician responsible for Benjamin. 

Dominik and Elise Schuhbrich had been found dead 
in a grove not far from the Oder. They had agreed to 
end their lives together. Dominik had shot first Elise, 
and then himself. When some Polish raftsmen dis- 
covered them several days after the deed, Dominik was 
lying with his forehead on Elise’s breast. 

The onus of this incident naturally fell upon Quint. 
Later the prosecution thought it had found sufficient 
facts to prove that Quint had misled and ruined those 
young people also, and one day confronted Quint with 
Dominik’s father, who showed no signs of mourning 
except a band of black crepe about his right sleeve. 
He spoke drily and harshly of his son. 

When he had looked at Dominik’s corpse he had 
seemed not so much saddened as relieved of an anxiety. 


While Dominik had been alive the father had had to 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 465 


sacrifice his own comfort by spending a portion of his 
small salary on Dominik’s education — a constant cause 
of irritation to him and a fact that he made quite clear 
to his son on every occasion. After the man left with 
his manner of the correct official, Quint gave himself 
a little shake as if he had been physically disgusted. 
His guards reported that he had muttered: 

“ Nothing makes men so low and contemptible as 
concern for their daily bread.” 

In reporting another incident the same attendants 
could not contain their indignation within the proper 
official bounds. It was when Quint spoke to his de- 
spairing mother in the reception room. The mother 
screamed and wept and asked her son again and again, 
“Tell me, did you really do it?” Receiving no an- 
swer one way or the other, she assumed he was guilty 
and overwhelmed him with complaints and reproaches 
for his disobedience. Everything had happened that 
his step-father, his brother, even she herself had 
prophesied, she said. 

“You have yourself to blame if your poor mother 
goes to her grave in sorrow and disgrace.” 

“ Woman, who art thou? I know thee not. I am 
from above; thou art from beneath. Wilt thou take 
again the corpse that thou hast borne? ‘Then be pa- 
tient. Soon I shall cast behind me the last of what is 
earthly in me.” 

He asked his attendants to take him back to the cell. 


* * * * * * * * 


In the prison in which Quint was detained, the in- 
mates spoke to one another by rapping on the walls 
of their cells, the method prisoners often employ for 
communicating with one another. Thus the whole of 


466 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


wing B was for a time amused and excited by the strange 
news signalled from above, from below, from the right, 
and the left, that Christ himself was in one of the cells. 

The laughable proceeding gradually became known. 
The warden reported it to the inspector, the inspector 
jokingly mentioned it to his son-in-law, the chaplain 
of the prison. For some time the attendants were un- 
able to find out in what cell the thing originated. It 
was the same with the blessed name of the Saviour as 
with the ghost in Hamlet. ‘Hic et ubique? Old 
mole! canst work i’ the earth so fast?” It was here 
and there and everywhere, yet nowhere. 

It occurred to the chaplain to have Quint brought to 
him in his office in the prison — an extremely comforta- 
ble room. ‘The chaplain was fond of the prison fare 
and seldom failed to have himself served with some of 
the barley soup which was fed to all the prisoners. He 
was just conveying a spoonful to his mouth, his hand- 
kerchief stuck in his collar, when Emanuel appeared 
between two guards. 

‘“‘ Children,” he cried, “such soup! You have no 
idea how good you’ve got it here. Formerly they used 
to give you bare boards to lie on and fed you with dirty 
water and mouldy bread.” 

He jovially tried to elicit from Emanuel whether he 
was not the originator of that Christ nuisance which 
was turning the whole prison into a mad-house. Per- 
haps the obstinate fellow with that religious bee in his 
bonnet, the chaplain thought, would confess all to him. 

But before taking up Emanuel’s case he had to finish 
with a girl who had been sentenced to twelve years in 
the penitentiary for child murder. It was by a hair’s 
breadth that the girl had escaped hanging. She had 
gone around seeking a shelter for herself and her child, 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 467 


and in five or six villages the communities had roundly 
refused her a home. Society and the state were alone 
responsible for the peasant girl’s need and her conse- 
quent crime, though in their indolence and indifference 
they were as unconscious of wrong-doing as an un- 
scrupulous individual. The state paid its debt to the 
girl by a new crime sanctioned when committed by 
itself. 

The girl had been crying for weeks. She had tried 
to commit suicide in various ways. Before the chaplain 
she merely kept repeating her one contrite, despairing 
question — was there any hope that she would see her 
child in the life to come? To everything else she 
seemed to be indifferent. It was nothing but the yearn- 
ing for her child that brought fresh floods of tears to 
her eyes almost blinded with weeping. 

A convict employed as a general factotum in the 
prison removed the soup, and the chaplain, already with 
Quint in his thoughts, turned to the girl. 

“IT don’t know why fate has hit me so hard,” she 
sighed. 

“What fate hit you? ” thundered the chaplain, bring- 
ing his mighty fist down with a thump on the table. 
“TI can hit a table but fate cannot hit a human being. 
God did not give fate that power. He has given men 
a free will. He has placed punishment behind wrong- 
doing, reward behind right-doing. It is not fate that 
is responsible for your crime before God and men. 
You alone are responsible. Your child will bear testi- 
mony against you on Judgment Day.” 

The chaplain took an ivory toothpick from one of 
the pockets of his high-buttoned black waistcoat and 
cleaned his glorious white teeth as sound as a negro’s, 


while the girl who had killed her child in despair shrank 


468 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


back in horror, her eyes suddenly dry. A year before 
she had been a beautiful blooming young creature of 
twenty. Now she was shrunken, bony, unlovely, with 
the hollows of old age in her cheeks. 

Why was it—-was it because the large, strange, 
knowing eyes of the other prisoner, Emanuel Quint, 
had rested upon her unwaveringly, or was it that she 
had a confused need to implore somebody for mercy — 
why was it that as she was being led away she unex- 
pectedly pressed her burning lips hard on Emanuel’s 
chained hands? | 

The chaplain was speechless. He held his toothpick 
in his hand like a finger pointing to heaven. It seemed 
to him as if somebody had distinctly said: 

“‘ Woman, thy sins be forgiven thee!” 

“ A nice state of affairs,” he burst out, “ when here 
in the chaplain’s own office a rascal who has almost 
been proved guilty of murder has the monstrous au- 
dacity to profane God’s words! Do you understand 
me, you scoundrel?” He brought his clean-shaven 
face with its broad cheek bones and broad chin close 
to Quint’s. ‘Do you understand me? We are not in 
the habit here of dragging the holiest things in the 
mud. Get out! 'That’s more than I have ever had to 
take from any prisoner in this room. Lanek,’’— he 
turned to one of the guards —“ lead this girl away 
and remove that fellow from my sight. I can’t bear 
to look at him. Shall I let that scum of humanity 
throw dirt on what is to me holiest and sublimest? No, 
that’s more than the duties of my office demand.” 
When he was alone with the factotum he said quite 
calmly, ‘‘ Please go see whether my wife is with the 
inspector. She was coming to call for me to go to 
an open-air concert in the ‘ Zwinger.’ ” 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 469 


The convict left the room and the clergyman com- 
fortably lit a cigar. 

For several weeks the news still went from cell to 
cell that Christ himself was in the prison. The walls 
quivered with vibrations from some mysterious source 
which kept pouring forth the words of the genuine 
Saviour. ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me.” Surely he hath borne our grief, and carried 
our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of 
God, and afflicted.” The stones spoke, “ They have 
despised Christ, hated Him, denied Him, persecuted 
Him, cursed Him, mocked Him, they smote Him, they 
spat upon Him, they imprisoned and crucified Him. 
He was hung up among murderers and counted among 
criminals.” 

Thus the stones spoke, but the superintendent of the 
prison thought it best to pay no attention to the 
harmless nonsense. 


* * * * * * * * 


Meanwhile certain facts were made known to the au- 
thorities by a factory girl named Therese Katzmarek, 
which gradually deflected suspicion from Quint. One 
day he was asked whether he knew a man by the name 
of Bohemian Joe, and whether he regarded him as 
capable of having committed the murder. Quint re- 
plied that he knew him, but that he was certain he was 
not guilty of the murder. Despite the silence in which 
he persisted and which had been necessarily construed 
as indicating his guilt, the prosecution began to have 
its doubts, and after investigations were for some time 
conducted in another direction, evidence was gathered 
which almost completely established Quint’s innocence. 


470 THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


They succeeded in accounting for the way in which 
Bohemian Joe had spent every day for the last few 
weeks before the murder. He had been seen slinking 
around the apothecary’s house where Ruth was stay- 
ing. He had got work at Miltzsch. A number of 
witnesses offered to testify who had been struck by the 
sight of the lovely girl in the company of the ugly 
little creature when he led her to Breslau, chiefly along 
by-ways across the fields. Other witnesses were able to 
prove an alibi for Quint. 

When Quint was acquainted with the favourable 
turn of affairs and was told he would probably be set 
free soon, to the prosecutor’s horror and embarrass- 
ment, the Fool confessed to the murder. 

His confession, however, did not hold water, and the 
prosecution had fully decided to give the Fool his lb- 
erty when Bohemian Joe’s corpse was discovered hang- 
ing from a willow branch at the spot where Ruth had 
been murdered. There was scarcely any need of the 
clumsy, circumstantial self-accusation found in Joe’s 
pocket to remove all doubt of his guilt. 


* * * % * * * 


The news that the real murderer had been discovered 
of course immediately reached the Heidebrands and 
thence was conveyed to the Krauses. ‘There was an 
immediate improvement in Marie’s condition. Since 
Emanuel’s disappearance she had spent her days in 
seclusion, and when she heard of the general suspicion 
that he was a murderer her health had completely bro- 
ken down. Physicians and the shepherd of Miltzsch 
were called in, and the so-called prayers for health were 
tried. But her condition grew worse. She could not 
retain food. She suffered from extreme anemia. And 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST ATL 


her faintness and heart-throbbing almost prevented her 
from taking the few steps from her bed to a willow 
chair by the window, where she sat a few hours every 
day for the fresh air. 

Here in the country Quint’s former friends had got 
an idea that he was leading a low, irregular life in the 
capital and so had gone down to his ruin. When 
Quint’s innocence became known they modified their 
views, and Marie began to eat with some appetite and 
talk more freely. A little colour came into her cheeks, 
and soon she undertook short walks. She wrote a let- 
ter to her sister Hedwig asking the day when Emanuel 
would be released from prison. 

Hedwig in turn wrote to Quint putting Marie’s ques- 
tion to him and telling him that her sister Marie, she 
herself, and her fiancé Bernhard Kurz would be awaiting 
him at the prison gate. In his answer Quint was un- 
truthful. Though he had been informed that the date 
of his discharge was the first of October, he wrote to 
Hedwig that it was the second of October. Thus 
Bernhard Kurz and the two girls had a long wait in 
front of the prison. After much questioning they were 
finally convinced that they had missed Emanuel and 
thought they would discover him somewhere in the city 
the same day. But they sought him in vain that day 
and many days after. In fact they never saw Emanuel 
Quint again. 


* * * * *& *% * * 


The day before, Quint had stolen away quietly. 
Since his case had never been tried in court and had not 
attained great publicity, he had long been forgotten. 

On the first of October near the spot where Ruth had 
found her end, several people noticed a tall, lank, 


ATR THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


scantily clad, pale, red-haired man. He wandered 
about the place a long time. Finally he knocked at 
the sexton’s door. The sexton’s wife thinking a beg- 
gar was outside opened the door. 

‘¢T am Christ. Give me a night’s lodging.” 

The woman in her fright banged the door shut in 
his face. ; 

Several days later the same thing happened at the 
school where Emanuel Quint had listened to Brother 
Nathaniel’s sermon. The teacher and his wife were 
sitting at table. A chilly autumn wind was rushing in 
the dark outside. They heard footsteps, and then a 
tapping at the door. The teacher’s wife did not want 
to open the door. She was afraid. But the pious 
teacher for some reason felt pangs of conscience, and 
recommending his soul to the Lord, went to the door, 
held it slightly ajar, and asked through the crack: 

“Who is there? ” 

“ Christ! ”? was the faint answer. 

The door fell shut with a crash that made the whole 
house shake. ‘The teacher came back to his wife, his 
teeth chattering. 

‘‘ There’s a madman outside,” he said. 

About a week later the Berlin newspapers published 
the following item: 

“The residents of the eastern section of the city have 
for some time been stirred by a peculiar incident. A 
beggar has appeared there who never asks for money, 
but only for bread and shelter. When questioned who 
he is, he always answers he is Christ. The alarm he 
produces wherever he turns up can readily be imagined, 
although he seems to be quite a harmless lunatic. He 
cannot be doing a very brisk business, for the housewives 
usually slam the door in his face the moment he utters 


THE FOOL IN CHRIST 473 


the ominous name, and quickly secure it with lock and 
key and bolt and whatever other means of safety they 
possess.” 

A week later the same thing gave the people of 

Frankfort-on-Main something to talk about for a little 
while. On the way from Berlin to Frankfort hundreds 
and hundreds of doors had flown shut in the face of 
the Fool and beggar who called himself Christ. A 
man in Frankfort satirically remarked that God in 
heaven must undoubtedly have had his attention drawn 
to our affairs here on earth by the unusually loud 
noise of slamming doors. One thanks heaven that the 
wanderer was only a poor, human fool and not Christ 
himself. Otherwise hundreds of Catholic and Protes- 
tant clergymen, workmen, officials, physicians, lawyers, 
merchants, bishops, noblemen, and middle-class men 
and peasants, in short, numberless pious Christians 
would have brought down upon themselves the curse of 
eternal damnation. 
_ And yet, he added, how do we know — though we 
pray, “ Lead us not into temptation ”— whether after 
all it was not the true Saviour who had come in the poor 
Fool’s cloak to see how far His seed sown by God, the 
seed of the kingdom, had ripened. 

If so, Christ then continued his wandering, as was 
learned, through Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, 
Basel, Ziirich, Lucerne as far as Godschenen and Ander- 
matt. Everywhere he had nothing but the same slam- 
ming of doors to report to his Father in heaven. The 
Fool who called himself Christ shared his bread and 
night’s lodging with two merciful Swiss mountain 
shepherds above Andermatt. After that he was never 


seen again. 
* * % % * # 2 # 


ATs THE FOOL IN CHRIST 


The chronicler who followed on Emanuel Quint’s 
tracks thinks it probable that the man who, abandoned 
and alone, dragged his Christ mania through Germany 
and Switzerland was the poor carpenter’s son who had 
disappeared from Silesia. It was he in all likelihood 
who was found after the spring thaw above St. 
Gothard’s Hospice lying a rigid, crouching corpse. Un- 
doubtedly Quint had lost his way in a snowstorm, had 
missed the pass down to the hospice and had climbed 
up to the wilder heights of the Pizzo Centrale. There 
the night, the fog, and the whirling snow had probably 
engulfed him. ) 

That must have happened in late autumn or early 
winter. For when the herdsmen found him he must 
have been lying in the deepest stratum of ice and snow 
for at least five or six months. <A sheet of paper was 
found in his pocket on which were still legible the 
words: 

“The mystery of the kingdom? ” 

Nobody heeded or understood the phrase. But when 
the chronicler saw the sad document he could not re- 
strain a feeling of emotion. Had Emanuel Quint died 
convinced or doubting? The bit of paper holds a 
question, surely. But what does it mean: ‘“* The mys- 
tery of the kingdom? ” 


THE END 





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